BL  85  .H7  1908 

Hoffman,  Frank  Sargent, 

1852 

-1928. 

The  sphere  of  religion 

By  FRANK  SARGENT  HOFFMAN 


THE  SPHERE  OF  THE  STATE :  or,  The 

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The  Sphere  of  Religion 

A  Consideration  of  its  Nature  and 

of  its  Influence  upon  the 

Progress  of  Civilization 


By 

Frank  Sargent  Hoffman,  Ph.D. 

Professor  in  Union  College,  author  of  "The  Sphere  of  the  State,"    "The 
Sphere  of  Science,"  etc. 


"Truth,  by  whomsoever  uttered,  is  from  God. 


G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  and  London 
CTbe    IRntcfterbocfter    press 

1908 


Copyright,  rgoS 

BY 

FRANK  SARGENT  HOFFMAN 


Ube  Unicfterbocfter  press,  -Rew  Ifforft 


PREFACE. 

This  book  is  written  for  the  express  purpose  of  in- 
teresting thoughtful  young  men  and  women,  especially 
those  in  our  colleges,  in  the  study  of  religion.  It  is 
the  author's  firm  conviction  that  no  other  study  offers 
to  the  student  so  many  and  such  varied  attractions,  or 
exerts  such  a  broadening  and  uplifting  influence  upon 
his  mind  and  life. 

Anthropologists  of  to-day  are  unanimous  in  the 
opinion  that  religion  came  into  the  world  with  the 
very  dawn  of  history,  and  that  in  all  lands  it  originated 
the  first  signs  of  a  civilized  life.  It  has  always  in  the 
past  been  a  dominating  factor  in  human  development, 
and  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  it  will  con- 
tinue to  be  so  in  all  time  to  come. 

No  man  or  nation  can  dispense  with  religion,  or  keep 
it  in  the  background.  For  every  person  is  so  made 
that  when  he  has  progressed  far  enough  to  distinguish 
himself  from  the  world  about  him,  he  must  recognize 
the  existence  of  a  power  above  himself  and  manifest 
some  feeling  of  dependence  upon  that  power.  No  hu- 
man beings  have  yet  been  discovered  upon  this  planet 
who  do  not  possess  a  religion  of  some  sort,  and  the  only 
serious  question  any  man  has  left  to  ask  himself  on  the 
matter  is  this  :  How  can  I  so  improve  the  religion  I 
already  have  as  to  make  it  of  the  highest  possible 
worth  ? 

It  would  be  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  find  a  sub- 


iv  Preface 

ject  that  in  recent  years  has  undergone  greater  or  more 
radical  modifications  as  to  its  nature  and  mission  than 
the  subject  of  religion.  President  Harris  of  Amherst 
College  put  it  none  too  strongly  when  he  said  in  his 
baccalaureate  sermon  to  the  class  of  1907,  *'  I  venture 
to  say  that  the  Protestant  Reformation  itself  did  not 
work  a  greater,  though,  perhaps,  a  more  violent 
change,  than  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  has  marked 
in  religious  thought,  belief,  and  life." 

No  person  in  our  day  has  any  right  to  consider  him- 
self a  fairly  well-educated  individual  who  is  ignorant 
of  these  changes,  or  has  intentionally  ignored  them 
as  of  slight  account.  For  no  other  matter  so  vitally 
affects  his  own  welfare  and  that  of  the  community  at 
large. 

In  trying  to  elucidate  in  some  degree  the  present-day 
position  regarding  the  sphere  and  significance  of  re- 
ligion, the  author  has  endeavored  to  give  an  impartial 
hearing  to  the  different  forms  of  religion  that  have  at- 
tained any  special  prominence  in  the  course  of  history. 
He  assumes  that  the  reader  will  have  little  difficulty  in 
selecting  the  one  that,  by  its  own  inherent  reasonable- 
ness and  adaptation  to  actual  human  needs,  is  most 
worthy  of  the  acceptance  of  his  intellect  and  the  vService 
of  his  life. 

Two  of  the  chapters,  the  first  and  the  ninth,  have 
already  appeared  in  the  North  American  Review^  and 
two  others  have  been  printed  wholly  or  in  part  in  the 
Proceedings  of  the  associations  before  which  they  were 
read  and  discussed.  They  are  here  reproduced  with 
the  consent  of  the  publishers  and  at  the  suggestion 
of  friends. 

If  the  readers  of  this  book  secure  from  its  perusal 
even  a  fraction  of  the  pleasure  and  profit  that  the  author 


Preface  v 

experienced  while  investigating  the  topics  discussed, 
he  will  feel  himself  amply  repaid  for  his  efforts  in 
trying  to  compress  the  treatment  of  so  great  a  theme 
into  so  small  a  compass. 

F.  S.  H. 
Union  C01.1.EGE, 

January,  1908. 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  I 


What  is  Religion? 


CHAPTER  H 

Steps  in  the  Evolution  of  Religion      .        .      13 


CHAPTER  HI 
Sacred  Books  and  How  They  Originate 

a.  The  Sacred  Tablets  of  the  Baby 

lonians    .        .        .        .        • 

b.  The  Egyptian  Book  of  the  Dead 

c.  The  Vedas  of  the  Hindus 

d.  The  Chinese  Classics 

e.  The  Iliad  and  the  Theogony  of 

THE  Greeks    .        .        •        • 
/.    The  Avesta  of  Zoroaster 
g.    Buddha's  Tripitaka  . 
h.    The  Bible  OF  THE  Jews     . 
i.    The  Christian  Scriptures 
j.    The  Koran  of  Mohammed 
k.    Joseph  Smith's  Book  of  Mormon 
/.     Mrs.     Eddy    and     ''Science    and 

Health  "         .... 
m.    Madame    Blavatsky's     "  Isis    Un 

veiled" 


37 

37 
52 
60 

71 

77 

94 

100 

107 
131 
150 
165 


210 


vlli  Contents 


CHAPTER  IV 
The  REI.ATION  OF  THE  Fine  Arts  to  Rei^igion    232 

CHAPTER  V 
ReIvIGion  the  Key  to  History  .        .        .     256  s^ 

CHAPTER  VI 
What  Rei^igion  has  to  Do  with  Kducation  .     278 

CHAPTER  VII 

The  Church  and  the  Right  to  Property     .    307 

CHAPTER  VIII 

The  Church  and  the  Modern  State     .  320  v 

chapter  IX 
The  Scientific  Method  in  Theoi^ogy     .        .    338 

chapter  X 
Human  Immortality  and  its  Relation   to 

Religion 352 

chapter  XI 
The  Present- Day  Conception  of  God    .        .    368 

Index 389 


The  Sphere  of  Religion 


THE  SPHERE  OF  RELIGION 


CHAPTER  I. 

WHAT   IS   RKI.IGION? 
(First  published  in  the  North  American  Review,  Feb.,  igo8.) 

No  one  at  all  acquainted  with  the  tendencies  of 
thought  at  present  can  fail  to  be  impressed  Vv^ith  the 
greatly  increased  interest  now  being  taken  in  the  study 
of  religion.  Thinkers  of  every  shade  of  opinion  upon 
other  subjects  are  fast  coming  to  recognize  the  fact 
that  religion  has  always  held  a  vitally  important  place 
in  the  development  of  every  race  and  individual,  and, 
whether  we  like  it  or  not,  is  certain  to  remain  a  most 
potent  factor  in  the  civilization  of  the  future. 

For  a  number  of  years  the  most  persistent  efforts 
have  been  put  forth  by  a  small  army  of  able  investi- 
gators to  find  out  the  actual  facts  of  man's  religious 
life  in  all  times  and  countries.  Not  only  have  the 
sacred  books  and  rites  of  the  nations  of  the  earth  been 
subjected  to  the  most  rigid  scrutiny,  but  the  folk-lore 
of  all  lands  and  even  the  crudest  superstitions  and 
most  repulsive  practices  of  savages  have  been  carefully 
studied.  Every  possible  means  has  been  taken  to  dis- 
cover what  ideas  man  has  had  in  all  conditions  of  his 
existence  concerning  the  powers  that  rule  over  this 
universe,  and  also  to  determine  to  what  extent  these 
ideas  have  affected  his  thought  and  life. 


The  Sphere  of  Religion 


But  nothing  is  more 'apparent  in  this  awakened  in- 
terest in  the  subject  of  religion  than  that  the  old  view 
of  what  constitutes  religion  has  undergone,  in  some 
respects  at  least,  an  actual  revolution.  The  narrow 
sectarian  position  of  a  generation  ago  has  been  shown 
to  be  wholly  untenable  ;  and  religion,  instead  of  being 
the  possible  acquisition  of  a  few,  w^e  now  see  reaches 
its  roots  deep  down  into  the  very  subsoil  of  humanity, 
and  cannot  help  giving  itself  some  sort  of  expression, 
for  good  or  for  ill,  in  the  experiences  of  every  indi- 
vidual. Hence  the  chief  inquiry  of  our  time  on  this 
subject  is  not  any  longer  whether  a  man  has  any  re- 
ligion, but  whether  the  religion  that  he  does  have  is  of 
any  real  value  ;  whether  it  is  a  help  or  a  hindrance  to 
his  own  progress  and  the  ultimate  triumph  of  truth 
and  right. 

But  before  this  question  can  properly  be  taken  into 
consideration,  we  must  make  a  careful  scrutiny  of  an- 
other, namely,  what  exactly  is  to  be  meant  by  religion  ? 
On  this  point  there  is  still  great  confusion,  and  in  the 
present  state  of  the  study  of  religion  no  need  is  more 
imperative  than  to  have  this  confusion  cleared  away,  or 
at  least  reduced  to  a  minimum. 

We  may  be  greatly  helped  to  the  attainment  of  this 
end  by  observing  in  the  first  place  that  religion  is 
not  to  be  confounded  with  religions.  Religion  is  that 
out  of  which  different  forms  of  religion  grow  or  de- 
velop. It  stands  related  to  religions  about  as  the  first 
man  stands  related  to  the  whole  human  race.  It  is  the 
germ  or  principle  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  all 
religions  and  out  of  which  they  all  proceed. 

No  error  can  be  greater  than  to  begin  our  present 
investigation  with  such  a  definition  of  religion  as  ex- 
cludes by  its  very  terms  all  other  religions  than  the 


What  is  Religion  f  3 

one  that  we  ourselves  most  approve.  This  error  is  not 
an  uncommon  one  among  writers  on  the  subject  even 
in  our  own  day.  A  distinguished  Oxford  professor, 
Sir  Monier  Monier- Williams,  recently  maintained  that 
'•a  religion,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word,  must 
postulate  the  existence  of  one  living  and  true  God  of 
infinite  power,  wisdom,  and  love,  the  Creator  and  De- 
signer and  Preserver  of  all  things  visible  and  invisible," 
besides  other  doctrines  which  he  specified.  Then  he 
proceeded  to  exclude  at  once  Buddhism  from  the  list  of 
religions  as  "no  religion  at  all."  Manifestly,  a  defi- 
nition of  religion  should  have  in  it  what  is  applicable 
to  all  forms  of  religion  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest, 
and  not  merely  what  is  true  only  of  one. 

In  the  second  place,  religion  should  not  be  identified 
with  a  belief  in  the  existence  of  superhuman  spirits. 
We  are  not  here  concerned  with  the  question  as  to 
whether  the  first  known  variety  of  religion  actually 
took  on  this  form.  It  may  be  admitted  at  once,  how- 
ever, that  most  of  the  religions  now  current  in  the 
world  do  make  a  great  deal  of  this  belief.  But  what 
we  maintain  is  that  if  the  belief  should  turn  out  to  be 
unfounded,  religion  would  not  be  destroyed  thereby. 

It  was  formerly  held  that  the  wind  is  an  immaterial 
spirit;  that  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  are  gods  and  god- 
desses with  their  own  separate  ambitions  and  whims; 
that  the  tides  ebb  and  flow  and  that  plants  grow  and 
decay  in  direct  obedience  to  spiritual  powers.  But 
everybody  at  all  acquainted  with  the  physical  science 
of  to-day  is  of  course  well  aware  of  the  fact  that  no 
such  supernatural  beings  exist,  and  that  these  objects 
and  their  activities  are  satisfactorily  accounted  for  on 
quite  other  grounds. 

The   untutored    savage,    when   he   awakes   from   a 


The  Sphere  of  Religion 


dream,  believes  that  he  has  been  away  on  a  journey, 
or  that  other  people  have  visited  him.  But  as  he  takes 
it  for  granted  that  his  body  does  not  make  these  ex- 
cursions, he  naturally  concludes  that  his  phantom  or 
image  makes  them  ;  and  when  he  beholds  his  shadow 
on  the  ground  or  sees  it  reflected  on  still  water,  he 
naturally  infers  that  his  double  self  is  following  him 
about.  But  no  psychologist  of  to-day  would  of  course 
admit  the  validity  of  such  an  explanation  for  these  or 
any  similar  mental  states  that  might  come  within  the 
range  of  human  experience. 

The  realm  of  alleged  superhuman  spirits  is  con- 
stantly being  lessened  by  modern  research,  and  we 
have  no  way  of  telling  at  present  where  exactly  this 
lessening  process  is  going  to  end.  Our  point  is  that  it 
is  immaterial  to  our  inquiry  after  the  essential  thing  in 
religion  as  to  where  it  does  end.  Many  existing  vari- 
eties of  religion  may  have  to  go  as  many  have  gone 
already,  but  religion  will  remain.  The  doctrine  of  the 
existence  or  non-existence  of  superhuman  spirits  is  not 
fundamental  to  its  continuance. 

One  of  the  ablest  advocates  of  this  view  of  religion  is 
Prof.  B.  B.  Tylor.  In  his  Primitive  Culture  (vol.  i., 
pp.  424-5),  after  very  properly  insisting  that  the  first 
requisite  in  a  systematic  study  of  the  religions  of  prim- 
itive men  is  to  lay  down  a  rudimentary  definition,  he 
proceeds  to  criticise  those  generally  in  vogue.  He 
finds  the  chief  error  of  them  all  to  consist  in  identifying 
religion  with  particular  developments,  rather  than 
with  the  deeper  motive  which  underlies  them,  and 
concludes  by  saying,  ' '  It  seems  best  to  fall  back  at 
once  on  this  essential  source,  and  simply  to  claim  as  a 
minimum  definition  of  religion  the  belief  in  Spiritual 
Beings." 


What  is  Religion  ? 


Now  it  is  admitted  that  this  belief  may  be  a  charac- 
teristic of  all  primitive  religions  ;  and,  if  we  were  merely- 
treating  of  the  histoiy  of  religion,  we  might  find  this 
definition  of  much  use.  But  we  are  looking  for  the 
germ  or  common  principle  of  all  religions,  and  that  is 
something  for  which  this  conception  of  religion  does 
not  adequately  suffice. 

Again,  we  should  not  regard  religion  as  primarily 
resting  upon  a  belief  in  human  immortality.  Even  so 
great  a  philosopher  as  Kant  maintains  that  *'  without 
a  belief  in  a  future  life  no  religion  can  be  conceived  to 
exist ' '  ;  and  John  Fiske  in  his  very  helpful  book, 
ThroKgk  Nature  to  God,  asserts  that  the  "belief  in 
the  unseen  world  in  which  human  beings  continue  to 
exist  after  death'  *  is  essential  to  religion.  Both  these 
thinkers  forget  that  the  early  Jewish  religion  was  with- 
out such  belief,  and  that  in  many  religions  where  it 
does  exist  it  forms  no  important  part  of  either  belief  or 
practice.  Among  the  ancient  Greeks  immortality 
meant  the  immortality  of  the  family  or  state  rather 
than  that  of  the  individual. 

In  many  religions  whole  classes  are  formally  ex- 
cluded from  it  and  the  doctrine  is  by  no  means  univer- 
sally held  to-day.  As  Howerth  well  says  in  a  recent 
article  {Internaf.  Jour,  of  Ethics,  Jan.,  1903,  p.  190)  : 
' '  What  has  the  conception  of  immortality  to  do  with 
the  religious  philOvSophy  of  those  who  hold,  with  the 
late  Prof.  Huxley,  that  religion  is  reverence  and  love 
for  the  ethical  ideal,  and  the  desire  to  realize  that  ideal 
in  life  ?  or  with  that  of  the  philosopher  Herbart,  who 
considered  sympathy  with  the  universal  dependence 
of  men  as  the  essential  natural  principle  of  religion  ? ' ' 

Important  as  this  doctrine  may  be  to  some  concep- 
tions of  the  ultimate  nature  of  the  universe,  religion 


The  Sphere  of  Religion 


would  not  perish  if  it  should  turn  out  to  be  erroneous. 
For  what  may  happen  in  eternity  cannot  be  the  de- 
termining cause  of  the  existence  of  a  thing  here  and 
now.  If  the  doctrine  of  conditional  immortality,  advo- 
cated by  so  many  in  our  day,  should  become  a  general 
view,  the  universal  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  would 
not  annihilate  religion.  The  idea  of  immortality  can- 
not therefore  be  regarded  as  its  final  basis  or  ground. 

Nor  can  we  clear  up  this  subject  of  religion  by  mak- 
ing it  primarily  dependent  upon  the  belief  in  one  per- 
sonal God.  This  belief  is,  to  be  sure,  the  dominant 
form  of  thought  on  the  subject  of  religion  in  all  civil- 
ized lands,  and  that  much  must  be  admitted  in  its 
favor.  But  by  holding  to  this  as  a  satisfactory  defini- 
tion of  religion  we  should  exclude  the  vast  majority  of 
the  human  race  from  the  category  of  religious  beings. 
For  many  maintain  that  no  primitive  races  have  this 
idea,  and  the  Buddhistic  religion  with  its  almost  un- 
told number  of  adherents  teaches  just  the  opposite 
doctrine.  Of  course,  we  are  not  concerning  ourselves 
with  the  truthfulness  or  the  value  of  this  belief  Our 
only  contention  now  is  that  those  w^ho  deny  this  doc- 
trine do  not  destroy  religion. 

What  man  in  history  was  ever  more  sincerely  relig- 
ious to  the  very  core  of  his  being  than  the  philosopher 
Spinoza  ?  His  whole  life  was  devoted  to  the  advocacy 
of  the  doctrine  that  the  only  thing  in  this  world  worth 
striving  for  was  to  love  and  know  God.  ' '  Our  salva- 
tion," he  says,  "  or  blessedness,  or  liberty,  consists  in 
a  constant,  or  eternal  love  towards  God."  Yet  he  dis- 
tinctly and  deliberately  rejected  the  personality  of  God 
as  wholly  out  of  harmony  with  a  sound  philosophy. 
Nature,  or  the  World-Force,  was  the  object  of  his 
reverence  and  love. 


What  is  Religion  ? 


As  a  matter  of  fact,  belief  in  the  existence  of  many- 
gods  has  been  far  more  prevalent  in  the  history  of 
mankind  than  the  belief  in  one.  Suppose  polytheism 
should  ultimately  prevail  over  all  lands,  or  pantheism 
should  become  the  universal  doctrine.  That  would 
not  do  away  with  the  existence  of  religion.  It  would 
only  be  changing  its  form  of  manifestation. 

If  the  positions  already  taken  are  sound,  we  have 
gone  far  enough  to  see  that  religion  in  the  truest  and 
most  profound  sense  of  the  term  is  not  primarily  de- 
pendent upon  any  specific  set  of  beliefs.  It  does  not 
rise  and  fall  with  these  beliefs,  or  go  out  of  existence  if 
they  cease  to  be.  The  greatest  variety  of  beliefs  have 
been  held  by  the  religious  leaders  of  the  world  from 
Confucius  and  Zoroaster  and  Socrates  down  to  our 
times  and  ntry,  but  few,  if  any,  specific  articles  of 
belief  are  taught  by  them  in  common.  No  one  of  the 
creeds,  even  among  Christians,  is  established  beyond 
critical  investigation,  and  many  of  them  may  yet  be  set 
aside  or  at  least  greatly  modified  by  advancing  thought. 

E.  Ritchie,  after  a  very  satisfactory  discussion  of 
the  relation  of  creeds  to  religion  in  a  late  number  of  the 
Philosophical  Review  (January,  1901),  clearly  states 
the  true  position  in  these  words  :  ' '  We  must  conclude, 
then,  that  there  is  no  particular  belief  as  to  what  the 
ultimate  reality  of  things  is,  or  as  to  man's  relation  to 
that  reality,  which  is  either  essential  to,  or  incompati- 
ble with,  the  possession  of  religion."  This  position 
does  not  imply,  however,  that  religion  has  nothing  at 
all  to  do  with  belief ;  for  the  opposite  is  true,  as  we  shall , 
see  a  little  later. 

Nor  are  we  to  find  the  ultimate  ground  of  religion  is 
some  particular  feeling  or  set  of  feelings.  In  the  sys- 
tem of  the  famous  theologian,  Schleiermacher,  religion 


8  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

was  regarded  as  neither  a  knowing  nor  a  doing,  but  a 
feeling  ;  and  it  was  made  to  rest  fundamentally  on  * '  a 
feeling  of  absolute  dependence. ' '  Several  able  modern 
writers  seem  to  hold  this  view,  of  whom  Prof  Lester 
H.  Ward  may  be  taken  as  an  example.  In  an  able 
article  in  the  Iniernat.  Jour,  of  Ethics  (January,  1898), 
he  says:  "It  is  this  sense  of  helplessness  before  the 
majesty  of  the  environment  which  if  it  is  not  religion 
itself,  is  the  foundation  upon  which  all  religion  is 
based."  The  error  here  is  not  in  holding  that  religion 
has  to  do  with  feeling,  but  in  maintaining  that  it  is 
grounded  primarily  on  feeling  alone.  For  it  is  psy- 
chologically untrue  to  fact  that  any  human  feeling 
springs  up  of  itself.  It  is  always  preceded  by  some  act 
of  knowing  of  at  least  some  degree  of  clearness  and 
force. 

Finally,  for  the  negative  side  of  our  inquiry,  religion 
is  not  primarily  a  doing.  It  is  not  based  alone  upon 
the  will.  There  are  no  acts  the  performing  of  which 
makes  a  man  religious.  Even  ' '  being  good  and  doing 
good,"  though  a  good  thing  in  itself,  will  not  account 
for  religion.  Nor  is  it  adequately  defined  as  obedience 
to  the  commandments  of  God  or  as  the  subjection  of  our 
fallible  wills  to  a  higher  will.  All  these  positions  con- 
tain an  element  of  truth  ;  but  they  do  not  lead  us  to  the 
essence  of  religion  as  in  the  Hght  of  modern  knowledge 
it  ought  to  be  considered.  The  apostle  James  was 
evidently  not  speaking  of  the  ultimate  foundations  of 
religion,  but  of  a  local  and  temporal  condition,  when 
he  made  pure  and  undefiled  religion  to  consist  of  this  : 
* '  to  visit  the  fatherless  and  widows  in  their  affliction, 
and  to  keep  himself  unspotted  from  the  world." 

We  must  look  for  a  satisfactory  definition  of  religion, 
therefore,  not  to  any  specific  belief,  or  kind  of  feeling, 


What  is  Religion  ? 


or  set  of  voluntary  acts,  but  to  the  whole  of  man  as  a 
knowing,  feeling,  and  willing  being.  We  should  not 
identify  religion  with  any  one  of  these  three  kinds  of 
mental  phenomena,  but  with  them  all.  The  psychology 
of  to-day  teaches  that  these  phenomena  in  all  proba- 
bility never  occur  separately ;  that  the  unit  of  con- 
sciousness includes  in  some  measure  the  activity  of  all 
three.  Every  act  of  perception  is  accompanied  by  a 
feeling,  and  every  feeling  by  an  act  of  will.  Nor  can 
the  order  of  their  occurrence  be  changed.  Every  voli- 
tion is  preceded  by  a  feeling,  and  every  feeling  by 
some  sensation  or  intellectual  act.  Pfleiderer  is  right 
when  he  insists  that  in  every  religious  act  the  whole 
personality  participates. 

Hence  a  correct  definition  of  religion  must  be  deter- 
mined by  the  way  we  put  these  three  elements  together. 
Our  problem  is  a  problem  in  psychology.  It  is  not  in 
the  study  of  theology  or  ethnology,  but  of  this  science 
that  we  shall  find  the  data  for  the  proper  solution  of  it. 
Religion  exists  because  man  exists.  It  grows  up  out 
of  the  normal  development  of  his  powers,  and  in  trying 
to  define  it  no  basal  element  in  his  nature  should  be 
left  out  of  account. 

Religion  shows  itself  just  as  soon  as  man  has  devel- 
oped beyond  the  mere  satisfaction  of  his  animal  appetites 
and  begins  to  exercise  his  higher  powers.  There  is  a 
partial  truth  at  least  in  Prof.  Ward's  position  that  "  re- 
ligion is  the  substitute  in  the  rational  world  for  instinct 
in  the  sub-rational."  No  new-born  babe  or  full-grown 
idiot  has  any  religion,  but  every  normally  developed 
human  being  has.  Whenever  a  man  knows  enough  to 
distinguish  the  outside  world  from  himself,  and  tries  to 
act  in  accordance  with  this  knowledge,  he  begins  to  be 
religious. 


lo  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


The  first  element,  therefore,  in  religion  is  the  recog- 
nition of  the  existence  of  a  power  not  ourselves  pervad- 
ing the  universe.  And  another  is  the  endeavor  to  put 
ourselves  in  harmonious  relation  with  this  power.  Of 
course  the  feeling  or  affective  element  is  presupposed 
as  coming  in  between  the  other  two.  For  without  it 
the  endeavor  would  lack  a  motive,  and  could  therefore 
have  no  existence  whatsoever.  Kvery  sane  man  believes 
at  least  that  he  is  only  a  fraction  of  the  sum-total  of 
things.  He  also  feels  some  dependence  upon  this  sum- 
total,  and  he  is  obliged  to  put  himself  in  some  sort  of 
accord  with  it.  This  is  w^hat  Caird  has  condensed  into 
the  statement,  ''  a  man's  religion  is  the  expression  of 
his  ultimate  attitude  to  the  universe"  {EvoluHo7t  of 
Religion,  vol.  i.,  p.  30). 

Every  growing  man  is  continually  changing  in  some 
degree  his  conception  of  the  universe  and  the  mysteri- 
ous power  that  it  manifests,  but  at  no  time  in  his  career 
does  he  arrive  at  a  final  and  completed  conception  of 
it.  This  is  due  of  course  to  the  fact  that  his  experience 
is  limited  and  can  never  be  anything  else.  One  of  the 
greatest  reflections  upon  a  man's  character  in  this  age 
when  so  much  is  being  added  to  our  knowledge  of  the 
universe  is  that  his  views  about  religion  never  change. 

Still,  we  must  not  forget  that  religion  is  a  great  per- 
manent reality.  It  is  not  something  that  comes  to-day 
and  goes  to-morrow.  So  long  as  man  endures,  it  will 
endure  ;  and  as  man  advances  it  will  grow  in  import- 
ance and  power. 

Here  we  need  to  note  the  fact  that  the  permanence 
and  reality  of  religion  can  never  be  affected  in  the  least 
by  the  teachings  of  any  science.  For  science  is  only 
one  of  man's  imperfect  ways  of  looking  at  his  know- 
ledge.    It  can  never  make  or  break  any  reality.     Re- 


What  is  Religiofi  ?  1 1 

ligion  was  in  the  world  long  before  any  of  the  sciences 
came  into  being,  and  it  will  stay  here  whatever  may 
be  their  future  development. 

For  science  is  a  means  to  an  end,  and  when  the  end 
is  attained,  when  a  perfect  comprehension  of  the  truth, 
such  as  we  might  suppose  a  god  to  possess,  is  arrived 
at,  there  will  be  no  need  of  science.  But  so  long  as 
man  remains  finite,  science  will  have  a  great  deal  to  do 
with  the  various  forms  of  religion  that  from  time  to 
time  make  their  appearance  in  history.  For  it  is  the 
business  of  science  to  investigate  and  criticise  all  kinds 
of  beliefs,  and  particularly  all  beliefs  that  are  proposed 
for  the  acceptance  of  mankind  concerning  the  nature 
and  attributes  of  the  supreme  power  that  pervades  the 
universe.  Not  infrequently  science  has  had  to  combat 
with  vigor  such  beliefs,  for  they  have  often  been  out  of 
all  accord  with  carefully  ascertained  truth. 

At  certain  periods  in  the  past  the  greatest  enemy  of 
religion  has  been  theology,  and  in  certain  localities  this 
is  the  case  at  present.  For  theology  is  almost  always 
the  last  science  to  yield  to  the  incoming  of  new  truths. 
But  whatever  may  be  the  teachings  of  theology  or  any 
other  science,  the  essential  thing  in  religion  is  not 
destroyed  thereby.  The  germ  is  always  present  and 
is  growing  with  some  degree  of  vigor  and  bearing  some 
kind  of  fruit. 

If  the  view  of  religion  taken  above  be  correct,  we  are 
led  to  the  observation  that  every  man  is  by  nature  re- 
ligious, and  unless  he  twists  his  growth  out  of  its 
normal  course  of  development,  he  will  always  remain 
so.  Irreligion  is  not  the  state  or  condition  of  having 
no  religion  at  all.  It  is  rebellion  against  what  one 
really  believes  to  be  the  best  religion,  and  the  setting 
up  of  some  inferior  religion  in  its  stead.     Every  sane 


1 2  The  Sphe7^e  of  Religion 

man  must  have  a  god  of  some  sort.  He  is  so  made 
that  he  must  worship  something.  He  must  put  some- 
thing over  and  above  himself  and  pay  that  something 
homage.  Modern  students  of  the  subject  of  reHgion 
are  now  everywhere  admitting  the  great  truth  con- 
tained in  the  statement  of  the  ancient  Psalmist  that 
only  a  fool  can  say  in  his  heart,  *'  There  is  no  God." 
They  are  willing  to  go  much  farther  and  accept  with- 
out hesitation  the  recent  assertion  of  President  Bliot 
of  Harvard,  that  the  true  test  of  any  man's  progress 
in  civilization  is  his  idea  of  God. 


CHAPTER  II. 

STEPS   IN  THE   EVOI.UTION   OF  IvEUGION. 

The  most  remarkable  thing  yet  discovered  about  this 
planet  is  the  fact  that  human  beings  exist  upon  it  in 
lar-e  numbers,  scattered  almost  everywhere  over  its 
surfece,  who  pay  homage  to  super-terrestrial  powers 
But  this  fact,  remarkable  as  it  is,  is  only  a  portion  of 
the  truth.  For  the  most  searching  and  unprejudiced 
investigation  has  failed  to  reveal  any  time  in  human 
history  when  it  was  otherwise.  However  ignorant  and 
forlorn  man  may  have  been  in  the  past,  we  have  no 
evidence  that  he  has  ever  been  so  low  down  m  the 
scale  of  being  that  he  did  not  look  upward  with  some 
deo-ree  of  reverence  and  awe  to  higher  powers. 

Not  many  years  ago  this  fact  of  the  universal  pre- 
valence of  religion  among  men  was  seriously  called  m 
question  by  no  less  weighty  writers  than  Sir  John 
Lubbock  and  Herbert  Spencer.  They  quoted  at  length 
from  the  reports  of  certain  travellers  and  missionaries 
among  the  Eskimos  of  North  Greenland,  the  Hottentots 
of  South  Africa,  and  the  Indians  of  Lower  CaUfornia,  ni 
support  of  fheir  position;  and  they  stoutly  contended 
that  in  these  documents  we  have  proof,  positive  that 
there  are  communities  now  in  existence  that  have  no 
religion  at  all.  This  challenge  lead  to  a  careful  and 
thorough  study  of  the  status  of  these  tribes  by  compe- 
tent anthropologists,  and  in  every  case  an  extensive 
mythology  was  discovered  among  them,  together  with 

13 


1 4  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

elaborate  religious  rites.  A  false  idea  of  the  meaning 
and  scope  of  religion,  a  short  stay  in  the  country,  or  a 
lack  of  knowledge  of  the  native  language,  had  been  the 
cause  of  the  mistaken  judgment.  Probably  no  scholar 
of  repute  to-day  would  hesitate  to  accept  the  statement 
of  Prof.  D.  G.  Brinton  in  his  work  on  The  Religions  of 
Primitive  Peoples  (p.  30)  that  *'  there  has  not  been  a 
single  tribe,  no  matter  how  rude,  known  in  history  or 
visited  by  travellers,  which  has  been  shown  to  be  desti- 
tute of  religion  under  some  form." 

The  reason  for  this  historical  fact  is  a  psychological 
one,  and  has  never  been  more  clearly  or  forcibly  ex- 
pressed than  by  Dr.  Edward  Caird.  '  *  Man, ' '  he  asserts 
{The  Evolutio7i  of  Religion,  vol.  i.,  p.  77),  "  by  the  very 
constitution  of  his  mind,  has  three  ways  of  thinking 
open  to  him  :  he  can  look  outwards  upon  the  world 
around  him;  he  can  look  inwards  upon  the  self  within 
him,  and  he  can  look  upwards  to  the  God  above  him. ' ' 
And  he  very  appropriately  adds,  "  none  of  these  possi- 
bilities can  remain  utterly  unrealized." 

For  the  fact  is  that  man  is  a  self-conscious  being. 
And  inasmuch  as  he  is  endowed  with  some  degree  of 
reason  and  will,  he  cannot  stand  still  and  passively 
gaze  at  the  objects  about  him  as  though  he  were  a 
mere  brute.  He  must  at  least  exert  himself  enough 
to  form  some  kind  of  a  conception  of  the  powers  around 
and  above  him,  and  put  forth  some  degree  of  energy 
to  place  himself  in  harmonious  relations  with  them. 
But  it  should  not  at  all  surprise  us  if  at  the  outset 
of  his  career^  as  a  religious  being,  he  shows  the  same 
confusion  of  ideas  about  the  objects  he  worships  as  he 
does  about  all  the  other  matters  that  come  within  the 
sphere  of  his  experience.  On  the  contrary,  we  should 
naturally  expect  to  find  him  growing  and  developing 


Steps  in  the  Evolution  of  Religion        \  5 

in  his  religious  ideas  as  he  grows  and  develops  in  all 
others. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  is  actually  the  case,  and  it 
will  be  our  present  purpose  to  trace  out  in  a  general 
way  some  of  the  principal  steps  that  he  has  taken  as  he 
has  advanced  from  lower  to  higher  conceptions  on  this 
subject  in  the  course  of  history. 

It  is  now  generally  agreed  by  careful  students  of  an- 
thropology that  the  most  primitive  form  of  all  religion 
is  best  characterized  by  the  word  Spiritism.  This  is 
the  naive  and  unreflective  belief  that  most  objects  in 
this  world,  especially  those  that  are  capable  of  motion, 
contain  an  unseen  being,  which,  for  the  lack  of  a  better 
term,  we  will  call  a  demon,  or  spirit;  that  these  spirits 
have  superhuman  powers  and  can  affect  for  good  or  ill 
everything  that  concerns  the  ongoings  of  nature  and 
the  lives  and  happiness  of  man.  In  this  stage  of  de- 
velopment human  beings  attribute  all  their  pleasant 
experiences  to  a  friendly  demon,  and  all  their  disagree- 
able ones  to  just  the  opposite  source.  Hence  they  make 
use  of  every  means  in  their  power  to  win  the  favor  of 
the  good  spirits,  and  ward  off  the  envy  and  wrath  of 
the  bad. 

The  reason  for  this  state  of  things  is  not  hard  to  find. 
For  when  the  primitive  man  first  begins  to  give  form 
to  his  religion,  he  is  himself  the  only  being  that  he 
knows  anything  about  that  possesses  the  power  of 
spontaneous  action.  He  cannot  help  attributing  the 
same  power  to  all  the  objects  with  which  he  in  any  way 
comes  in  contact.  He  acts  just  as  every  little  child 
acts  in  a  similar  condition.  Any  object  that  constantly 
gives  a  baby  pleasure  it  pats  and  caresses  with  affection. 
The  one  from  which  it  gets  a  hard  pinch  or  knock  it 
wants  to  pound  and  kick  with  all  its  power.     It  spon- 


1 6  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


taneously  assigns  to  the  object  the  same  sensations  and 
feelings  and  will  as  it  is  itself  conscious  of.  Its  experi- 
ence is  so  limited  and  crude  that  it  does  not  know 
enough  to  do  otherwise.  So  it  is  with  primitive 
man.  To  him  every  other  is  another,  and  he  attributes 
to  that  other  all  of  his  own  powers.  In  his  opinion  the 
world  about  and  above  him  is  made  up  of  a  vague,  in- 
definite host  of  superhuman  demons  or  spirits,  and  the 
form  of  his  religion  is  determined  by  that  fact. 

Another  thing  that  confirmed  the  primitive  man  in 
the  belief  that  he  was  surrounded  by  a  world  of  super- 
sensuous  beings  was  his  experience  in  dreams ;  when 
he  had  developed  far  enough  to  remember  his  dreams 
with  any  vividness,  he  always  thought  of  them  as  real 
experiences.  The  beings  that  visited  him  in  his  sleep 
were  as  genuine  realities  and  as  truly  to  be  dealt  with 
as  any  that  he  came  in  contact  with  when  awake.  In 
fact,  he  finds  that  he  can  often  do  things  in  dreams 
that  he  cannot  do  when  awake,  and  that  he  frequently 
communes  with  beings  that  he  has  no  knowledge  of 
when  awake.  The  Kamtchatkans  and  Eskimos,  we 
are  told,  determine  what  they  will  do  when  awake  to  a 
great  extent  by  their  dreams ;  for  they  regard  the 
knowledge  obtained  in  this  way  as  far  superior  to  that 
gained  through  the  senses.  Lucretius,  however,  goes 
too  far  when  he  asserts  that ' '  the  dreams  of  men  peopled 
the  heaven  with  gods."  Many  of  the  lower  animals 
are  vivid  dreamers,  but  they  show  no  signs  of  having 
any  religion.  Still,  dreams  in  all  ages  have  often  been 
regarded  with  superstitious  reverence,  and  were  ur 
doubtedly  an  element  in  determining  the  character  of 
the  primitive  religion  of  mankind. 

It  has  come  down  to  us  from  the  Latin  poet  Petro- 
nius  that  "fear  first  made  the  gods."     As  a  complete 


Steps  in  the  Evolution  of  Religion        1 7 

statement  of  the  origin  of  religion,  it  is  contrary  to  the 
history  and  nature  of  man.  The  primary  religious 
influence  is  not  fear,  but  confidence  and  awe.  The 
spirit  of  many  early  religions  was  quite  the  opposite  of 
fear.  ' '  Probably  the  first  of  all  public  rites  of  wor- 
ship," says  a  high  authority  (Brinton,  The  Religions 
of  Primitive  Peoples,  p.  181),  "was  one  of  joyousness, 
to  wit,  the  invitation  to  the  god  to  be  present  and  to 
partake  of  the  repast."  So  Prof.  Frank  Granger  testifies 
in  his  work  on  the  Worship  of  the  Romans.  No  word 
of  mourning  was  allowed  at  their  religious  celebra- 
tions, and  usually  they  consisted  in  large  part  of  the- 
atrical performances,  horse-races,  dances,  and  games 
for  the  entertainment  of  their  gods.  Dr.  Robertson 
Smith  tells  us  in  his  Religioji  of  the  Semites  (p.  260) 
that  the  early  Semitic  ceremonies  were  "  predominantly 
joyous,"  and  it  was  often  this  element  in  their  worship 
that  led  them  to  indulge  in  the  grossest  excesses. 
Many  other  modern  students  of  the  subject  would  bear 
witness  to  the  presence  of  joy  and  confidence  in 
primitive  religions. 

Yet  it  cannot  be  denied  but  that  fear  early  came 
to  be  one  of  their  most  important  elements.  For  just 
as  with  the  little  child,  the  primitive  man  was  often 
disappointed  in  his  confidence.  As  his  experience 
widened  and  the  ills  of  Hfe  multiplied,  he  began  to 
doubt  the  friendly  character  of  the  spirits.  He  soon 
came  to  the  conviction  that  some  only  were  favorable 
to  him.  The  rest  were  to  be  feared.  And  as  fear  once 
.xroused  feeds  upon  everything  within  its  grasp  and 
grows  with  extraordinary  rapidity,  the  uncertainty  as 
to  what  the  attitude  of  the  spirits  would  be  toward  him 
naturally  caused  the  primitive  man  to  spend  the  most 
of  his  energy  in  devising  ways  to  appease  their  wrath. 


1 8  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

Wherever  this  form  of  religion  now  prevails,  demons 
of  darkness  and  destruction  have  come  to  receive  al- 
most exclusive  worship.  In  fact,  the  wretchedness 
and  misery  of  heathendom, — cannibalism,  human  sac- 
rifices, and  the  revolting  licentiousness  of  many  primi- 
tive religious  rites — are  chiefly  due  to  the  frantic  ef- 
forts of  ignorant  man  to  propitiate  these  monsters  and 
ward  off  their  manifold  terrors. 

A  slight  step  in  advance  beyond  spiritism  was  taken 
when  the  opinion  began  to  prevail  that  all  objects  do 
not  contain  superhuman  beings,  but  only  some  of  them. 
This  stage  in  religion  is  called  Fetishism.  The  term 
was  first  applied  by  certain  early  Portuguese  explorers 
to  the  objects  worshipped  by  the  savage  tribes  they 
discovered  in  Senegal  and  the  region  of  the  Congo. 
They  found  some  of  these  peoples  paying  homage  to 
such  objects  as  a  piece  of  wood,  a  feather,  the  fin  of  a 
fish,  the  claw  of  a  bird,  the  hoof  of  a  goat.  Others 
among  them  regarded  with  reverential  awe  a  big  rock, 
a  grove  of  trees,  some  such  animal  as  a  snail,  a  snake, 
a  lizard,  or  a  crocodile.  In  fact,  anything  became  an 
object  of  worship  to  them  when  they  fancied  that  a 
powerful  unseen  being  had  attached  himself  to  it. 

If  a  fetish  brings  good  luck,  it  may  be  sold  for  a 
high  price  if  the  owner  wishes  to  part  with  it.  If  it 
brings  bad  luck,  it  is  thrown  away  or  demolished.  For 
all  virtue  has  gone  out  of  it.  The  spirit  that  was  in  it 
has  departed,  and  it  has  lost  its  power.  The  favorite 
fetish  of  a  Papuan  of  New  Guinea  is  a  little  wooden 
doll  with  a  bright  colored  rag  tied  around  it.  If  a 
stroke  of  ill  fortune  comes  to  him  when  he  has  this  in 
his  belt,  he  will  take  it  out  and  stamp  on  it,  or  tear  it 
in  pieces  with  his  teeth,  and  cast  it  from  him  as  of 
utterly  no  value. 


Steps  in  the  Evolution  of  Religion         ig 

When  food  is  offered  by  a  South  African  negro  to  a 
stone  by  the  wayside,  he  does  not  expect  the  stone  to 
eat  it.  The  food  is  for  the  fetish  that  resides  in  the 
stone,  and  the  fetish  is  always  a  spirit.  Man's  first 
home  was  probably  the  hollow  of  a  tree.  He  lived  on 
the  fruit  of  the  tree  and  sought  refuge  in  its  branches. 
But  when  some  Mexican  tribes  took  a  tree  for  their 
fetish,  they  did  not  worship  the  material  of  the  tree. 
It  was  only  the  spirit  that  resided  in  it  that  they 
reverenced. 

As  we  go  about  over  the  surface  of  the  earth,  we  find 
that  different  tribes  have  selected  different  objects  for 
their  fetish,  according  as  the  objects  have  impressed 
themselves  upon  them  as  possessing  superhuman 
powers.  Among  the  Maoris  of  New  Zealand  spiders 
were  paid  divine  honors  ;  for  it  was  in  their  gossamer 
threads  that  they  fancied  the  souls  of  the  departed  as- 
cended heavenwards. 

Some  of  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  Northwest  regarded 
the  raven,  or  the  thunder-bird,  as  they  called  it,  as  es- 
pecially sacred  ;  and  according  to  Captain  Cook,  the 
Sandwich  Islanders  also  did  so.  The  peacock,  the  swan, 
the  rooster,  the  eagle,  and  the  dove,  have  been  the  favor- 
ite fetishes  of  other  tribes.  In  Australia  and  Polynesia 
the  lizard  was  greatly  revered.  The  Chaldeans  paid 
the  fish  divine  honors.  In  Egypt  the  ox  was  especially 
sacred,  and  so  it  is  in  parts  of  India.  In  certain  of  the 
Fiji  Islands  the  shark  is  worshipped,  just  as  the  alliga- 
tor is  in  the  Philippines.  The  Samoyeds  in  Siberia 
make  fetishes  of  the  whale  and  the  polar  bear. 

But  the  most  widely  worshipped  of  all  animals  is  the 
serpent.  Mr.  Ferguson,  in  his  work  on  Tree  and  Ser- 
pent Worship,  finds  that  the  serpent  was  accorded  di- 
vine honors  by  nearly  all  the  nations  of  antiquity,  and 


20  The  Sphere  of  Religio7t 

is  now  worshipped  in  many  parts  of  Asia,  Africa,  and 
America.  Among  the  Lithuanians  in  southern  Russia, 
says  a  high  authority,  "every  family  entertained  a  real 
serpent  as  a  household  god."  Sir  John  Lubbock  tells 
us  that  in  Liberia  "  no  negro  would  intentionally  injure 
a  serpent,  and  any  one  doing  so  by  accident  would  as- 
suredly be  put  to  death.  Some  English  sailors  once 
having  killed  one  which  they  found  in  their  house, 
were  furiously  attacked  by  the  natives  who  killed  them 
all  and  burned  the  house  ' '     ( Origm  of  Civilization^  p. 

177)- 

The  Hindus  probably  excel  all  other  peoples  of  the 
world  in  the  number  of  objects  to  which  they  pay 
divine  honors  ;  for  they  worship  "  almost  every  living 
creature,  whether  quadruped,  bird,  or  reptile."  But 
they  never  worship  the  objects  themselves,  nor  do  any 
of  the  tribes  or  peoples  enumerated  above  do  so.  They 
always  treat  the  object  with  indifference,  if  not  con- 
tempt, if  they  believe  the  superhuman  spirit  it  contained 
has  gone  out  of  it. 

In  this  stage  of  religious  development,  as  in  every 
other,  it  happened  that  certain  persons  came  to  devote 
their  lives  to  finding  out  the  ways  of  the  spirits.  Under 
the  name  of  medicine-men,  sorcerers,  shamans,  yogi, 
or  fetish  priests,  they  soon  became  the  leaders  and 
guides  of  the  people,  dictating  even  the  very  details  of 
their  daily  lives.  By  the  practice  of  many  magical 
rites  and  the  use  of  various  charms  and  incantations 
they  believed  that  they  acquired  such  a  knowledge  of 
the  plans  and  intents  of  the  spirits  that  they  could  di- 
rect their  actions  almost  at  their  option.  They  had  all 
the  confidence  in  themselves  and  all  the  authority  over 
others  of  inspired  prophets.  Often  they  gained  this  in- 
sight by  the  most  terrible  self-inflicted  tortures.     They 


Steps  in  the  Evolution  of  Religion        21 

would  not  hesitate  to  cut  off  a  limb,  pluck  out  an  eye, 
drive  thongs  through  the  body,  burn  themselves  with 
hot  coals,  to  put  themselves  en  rapport  with,  the  spirits. 
They  therefore  knew  no  limit  to  the  suffering  that  they 
would  impose  upon  others,  if  they  thought  the  spirits 
could  be  propitiated  thereby.  It  was  not  at  all  uncom- 
mon for  them  to  call  upon  their  followers  to  offer  up 
not  only  their  slaves  and  their  captives,  but  the  nearest 
and  dearest  of  their  own  household  and  blood  to  gain 
the  favor  of  the  gods.  For  the  dearer  the  victim,  the 
more  pleased  they  would  be  at  the  gift.  Traces  of  hu- 
man sacrifice  are  found  in  the  early  history  of  even  the 
noblest  religions.  The  ancient  Hebrew  religion  is  no 
exception  to  this  rule. 

Closely  allied  to  fetishism,  yet  indicating  some  ad- 
vance in  the  evolution  of  religious  beliefs  is  Ancestor- 
worship.  This  easily  arises  when  man  has  developed 
far  enough  to  begin  to  meditate  upon  the  phenomena 
of  death.  At  the  very  outset  it  is  likely  that  death  did 
not  arouse  much  more  interest  than  it  does  now  among 
brutes.  Brinton  asserts  that  ' '  The  evidence  is  moun- 
tain-high that  in  the  earliest  and  rudest  period  of 
human  history  the  corpse  inspired  so  little  terror  that  it 
was  nearly  always  eaten  by  the  surviving  friends." 
But  even  this  custom  was  probably  of  a  religious  origin. 
A  traveller  (D'Orbigny)  in  Bolivia  tells  us  of  an  old 
Indian  he  met  there  whose  only  regret  in  giving  up  his 
old  religion  and  adopting  Christianity  was  that  his 
body  would  now  be  devoured  by  worms,  instead  of 
being  eaten  by  his  relatives. 

At  all  events,  it  early  became  an  elaborate  and  sol- 
emn religious  rite  to  provide  the  body  with  carefully 
prepared  viands  for  its  last  long  journey.  Any  neglect 
on  the  part  of  the  survivors  would  be  severely  punished. 


2  2  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

For  the  soul  of  the  departed  would  continue  to  roam 
about  without  a  home,  unless  it  was  properly  attended 
to  its  final  resting-place.  Hence  it  became  the  world- 
wide custom  among  savage  tribes  to  place  in  the  tomb 
or  on  the  funeral  pyre  such  articles  as  the  weapons,  the 
clothing,  and  ornaments  of  the  deceased.  In  many 
cases  the  wives  or  slaves  or  companion-in-arms  were 
slain  or  slew  themselves  to  accompany  a  chieftain  to  his 
long  home.  Often  among  the  American  Indians  they 
were  interred  in  the  same  mound,  and  many  such 
mounds  exist  in  different  parts  of  the  country. 

When  a  tribe  had  survived  so  long  as  to  have  a 
history,  and  to  trace  its  descent  through  the  male  head 
of  the  family,  a  decided  change  in  its  religious  views 
usually  followed.  As  Giddings  describes  it  {Pri7idples 
of  Sociology,  p.  290)  ''while  the  household  may  con- 
tinue to  regard  natural  objects  and  forces  and  mis- 
cellaneous spirits  with  superstitious  feelings,  they 
entertain  for  the  soul  of  the  departed  founder  of  the 
house  the  strongest  feeling  of  veneration.  They  think 
of  the  ancestral  spirit  as  their  protector  in  the  land  of 
shades.  To  the  ancestral  spirit,  therefore,  they  pay 
their  principal  devotions."  We  find  it  generally  true 
that  the  family  tomb  was  near  the  house  and  not  far 
from  the  entrance.  The  children  were  brought  up 
under  its  shadow,  and  constantly  addressed  to  it  their 
prayers.  Within  the  house  on  the  family  altar  burned 
the  sacred  fire  that  went  out  only  with  the  extinction 
of  the  family.  Around  this  fire  all  the  household  dead 
were  supposed  frequently  to  assemble  to  hear  their 
mighty  deeds  narrated  and  to  be  reverenced  and 
adored. 

All  the  ancient  Semitic  tribes  were  ancestor-wor- 
shippers,   and  so   were   the  Aryans   when   they   first 


Steps  in  the  Evolution  of  Religion        23 


appeared  on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  The 
Egyptians  carried  the  cult  to  a  high  state  of  perfection, 
and  the  manes- worship  which  long  held  sway  among 
the  Romans  is  an  example  of  it.  It  is  to-day  the  re- 
ligion of  the  Bantu  tribes  of  Africa,  and  still  prevails  to 
some  extent  in  Japan.  But  it  is  chiefly  among  the 
Chinese  that  this  form  of  religion  has  reached  its  high- 
est form  of  development.  All  changes  in  the  customs 
of  the  country  are  resisted  as  a  reflection  upon  the 
regulations  established  by  their  ancestors,  for  the  in- 
fraction of  which  they  will  be  severely  punished. 
The  greatest  sin  they  can  commit  is  to  allow  the 
graves  of  their  ancestors  to  be  disturbed  for  any  cause 
whatsoever. 

Herbert  Spencer  regarded  ancestor-worship  as  the 
primary  religion.  In  his  Science  of  Sociology  (vol.  i., 
p.  309)  he  expressly  says :  * '  The  rudimentary  form  of 
all  religion  is  the  propitiation  of  dead  ancestors,  who 
are  supposed  to  be  still  existing,  and  to  be  capable  of 
working  good  and  evil  to  their  descendants." 

The  trouble  with  this  view  is  that  it  is  superficial. 
It  rests  upon  a  false  conception  of  religion,  and  is  con- 
trary to  historical  and  psychological  fact.  But  perhaps 
the  chief  objection  to  Spencer's  view  is  its  simplicity. 
For  as  Jastrow  remarks  ( The  Study  of  Religion,  p.  185), 
"  Religion  is  too  complex  a  phenomenon  to  be  accounted 
for  by  the  growth  and  spread  of  a  single  custom." 

As  men  progress  in  their  knowledge  of  the  things 
about  them,  they  come  to  see  the  defects  in  the  forms 
of  religion  described  above,  and  begin  to  turn  their 
attention  to  more  exalted  powers.  They  cease  to  pay 
exclusive  homage  to  the  spirits  that  reside  in  the  ob- 
jects that  they  themselves  have  handled  and  can  make 
or  destroy,  and  begin  to  look  up  in  reverential  awe  to 


2  4  The  sphere  of  Religion 

the  beings  that  manifest  themselves  on  a  vaster  scale, 
and  in  a  more  consistent  and  impressive  manner. 

Thus  arose  what  is  usually  called  Nature- worship, 
the  most  prominent  form  of  which  is  the  worship  of 
the  celestial  bodies.  It  is  probable  that  the  division 
of  the  week  into  seven  days  came  about  from  the  dedi- 
cation of  one  day  to  each  of  the  gods  manifesting  him- 
self through  the  seven  greatest  luminaries. 

Naturally,  in  all  except  the  torrid  zone,  the  sun-god 
received  the  greatest  homage.  As  the  source  of  light 
and  warmth,  as  the  earth's  great  fructifying  power,  as 
the  one  constant  ever-recurring  factor  in  man's  daily 
experience,  it  has  always  awakened  the  most  powerful 
religious  emotions,  in  the  minds  of  rude  as  well  as  semi- 
civilized  people.  Among  the  ancient  Phoenicians  the 
sun  was  the  centre  of  their  cultus.  It  was  probably 
the  leading  feature  of  the  religion  of  the  ancient 
Persians.  The  same  was  also  true  of  the  Sabeans.  The 
worship  of  Apollo,  so  popular  among  the  Greeks,  was 
in  all  probability  sun-worship.  The  Egyptians  gave 
the  sun  a  high  place  in  their  system,  and  the  ancient 
Peruvians  paid  it  their  chief  honors.  The  Celts  and 
the  Teutons,  as  well  as  the  Bast  Indians,  made  much 
of  it,  and  so  do  numerous  tribes  in  Africa  to-day.  It 
is  maintained  by  many  writers  that  the  North  American 
Indians  were  always  and  chiefly  sun-worshippers  ;  that 
the  sun  was  actually  their  Manitou,  or  Great  Spirit. 

In  some  lands  the  moon  was  fixed  upon  as  the  chief 
deity.  Certain  Australian  tribes  believe  to-day  that 
all  things,  including  man,  were  created  by  the  moon. 
Anthropologists  tell  us  that  in  many  American  lan- 
guages the  moon  is  regarded  as  male,  and  the  sun  is 
referred  to  as  "his  companion."  Some  of  the  Brazilian 
tribes  pray  to  the  moon  as  "  Our  Father,"  and  regard 


Steps  in  the  Evolution  of  Religion        2  5 


it   as   their  common    ancestor.      So    do    the    eastern 
Eskimos. 

At  all  periods  of  the  world's  history  the  stars  have 
received  special  homage.  Among  the  early  natives  of 
Greenland  and  Australia  the  Milky  Way  was  nothing 
less  than  the  pathway  of  souls  ascending  to  their  home 
in  the  heavens.  The  Auroras  Borealis  and  Australis 
were  actually  in  their  opinion  the  dance  of  the  gods 
across  the  firmament. 

Another  form  of  nature- worship  was  the  adoration  of 
the  fire-god.  Among  all  peoples  fire  has  been  held 
sacred.  It  was  thought  of  as  the  central  principle  of 
life.  Among  the  Kafirs  in  South  Africa  every  religious 
ceremony  must  be  performed  in  front  of  a  fire.  The 
Indians  of  Guatemala  regard  it  as  their  greatest  and 
oldest  deity.  The  fire  test  was  practised  by  the  Aztecs 
of  Mexico,  as  well  as  by  the  Moloch  worshippers  of 
Syria.  In  Borneo  the  crackling  of  blazing  twigs  is  the 
speech  of  the  gods.  The  vestal  fire  of  old,  and  the 
perpetual  fire  of  the  modern  Christian  altar  are  both 
founded  upon  the  assumption  of  its  sacred  character. 

Early  missionaries  in  America  tell  us  that  the  Hurons 
paid  the  sky  the  greatest  homage.  They  imagined  that 
it  contained  a  powerful  demon  or  "  oki,"  that  reigned 
over  the  seasons  of  the  year,  and  controlled  the  winds 
and  waves.  The  supreme  deity  of  the  Iroquois  was  the 
*' sky-comer,"  who  had  his  festival  about  the  time  of 
the  winter  solstice.  He  was  the  one  who  brought  their 
ancestors  out  of  the  mountain  and  taught  them  hunt- 
ing, marriage,  and  religion.  Some  of  the  Zulus  think 
of  the  sky  as  the  "  Master  of  Heaven,"  and  pay  it  di- 
vine honors,  and  so  do  the  Tartars  and  Finns.  In  an- 
cient China,  Tien,  or  Heaven,  was  the  Upper  Emperor, 
or  Lord  of  the  Universe.     According  to  Max  Miiller, 


26  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

Zeus  was  the  heaven-god  of  the  Greeks.  ' '  I^ike  the 
sky,"  he  says,  "  Zeus  dwells  on  the  highest  mountain, 
lyike  the  sky,  Zeus  embraces  the  earth  ;  like  the  sky, 
Zeus  is  eternal,  unchanging,  the  highest  god ' '  (I/ec- 
tures,  2d  series,  p.  425). 

The  water-god  has  always  had  a  multitude  of  wor- 
shippers. As  the  source  of  moisture  and  the  dew  and 
all  refreshing  showers,- it  easily  comes  to  be  thought  of 
as  the  giver  of  all  life.  ' '  All  of  us, ' '  the  Aztecs  said, 
"'  are  children  of  water."  Tlaloc,  their  god  of  rain  and 
water,  is  the  fertilizer  of  the  earth  and  lord  of  paradise. 
His  wife  dwells  among  the  mountains  where  the  clouds 
gather  and  pour  down  their  streams.  Among  the  Da- 
kotas,  the  master  spirit  of  their  sorcery  and  religion  is 
said  to  be  Unktahe,  the  god  of  the  water,  who  dwells 
with  his  associates  beneath  the  sea.  The  inland  people 
of  Sumatra,  we  are  told,  make  an  offering  of  cake  and 
sweetmeats  to  the  sea  on  beholding  it  for  the  first  time. 
Among  the  Khonds  of  Orissa  the  priests  often  propi- 
tiate the  rain-god  with  eggs  and  arrack  and  rice  and  a 
sheep.  They  believe  that  unless  they  do  this,  the  seeds 
will  rot  in  the  ground,  their  children  and  cattle  will  die 
of  want,  the  deer  and  the  wild  hog  will  seek  other 
haunts. 

Although  Xerxes  tried  to  chain  and  scourge  the  Hel- 
lespont, he  threw  a  golden  goblet  and  a  sword  into  its 
waters.  Hannibal  on  leaving  Carthage  took  scrupu- 
lous care  to  cast  many  animals  into  the  sea  as  votive 
offerings  to  Poseidon.  The  famous  Athenian  prayer 
recorded  by  Marcus  Aurelius  reveals  the  classic  con- 
ception of  one  of  the  chief  functions  of  Zeus  :  "  Rain, 
rain,  O  dear  Zeus,  on  the  plough-lands  of  the  Athen- 
ians and  the  plains."  In  Vergil  Oceanus  is  often 
spoken  of  as  "  pater  rerum. ' '     Water  is  used  the  world 


Steps  in  the  Evolution  of  Religion        2  7 

over  in  libations  and  in  acts  of  penitence  and  purifi- 
cation. Baptism  by  sprinkling  or  immersion  has  been 
a  common  sacred  rite  among  all  peoples. 

The  Algonquins  call  the  earth  Mesukkummik  Okwi 
and  worship  her  as  the  great  grandmother  of  all. 
They  believe  that  the  animals  from  whose  flesh  and 
skin  the  food  and  clothing  of  man  are  derived  are  in  her 
care.  No  good  Indian  will  dig  for  the  roots  from  which 
his  medicines  are  made  until  he  has  first  sought  her 
blessing.  Otherwise,  the  roots  would  have  no  health- 
restoring  power.  The  Incas  of  Peru  at  harvest  time 
present  ground  corn  and  libations  of  chica  to  Mamapa- 
cha,  Mother  Karth,  that  she  may  grant  them  a  good 
harvest.  The  negroes  of  West  Africa  before  entering 
upon  any  great  undertaking  pour  out  their  libations 
calling  out,  "  Creator,  come  drink  ;  Earth,  come  drink  ; 
Bosumbra,  come  drink. ' '  Many  of  the  natives  of  India 
always  offer  some  food  to  Mother  Earth  before  eating. 
The  Khonds  being  an  intensely  agricultural  race 
recently  carried  the  worship  of  the  Earth-Mother  to 
such  excess  that  the  practice  of  their  rites  had 
to  be  suppressed  by  the  government.  For  they 
offered  to  her  their  slave-victims  torn  into  small 
pieces  and  spread  over  the  fields  they  were  to 
fertilize. 

In  the  Chinese  theology  the  earth  holds  a  place  next 
to  heaven.  The  worship  of  Tien  and  Tu,  Father 
Heaven  and  Mother  Earth,  by  the  bride  and  groom  is 
an  all-important  part  of  a  Chinese  wedding  ceremony. 
The  Greeks  prayed  to  Gaia  as  the  all-mother,  and 
Tacitus  found  the  Germans  practising  the  customs  of 
his  own  country  in  worshipping  '*  Terram  matrem." 
The  oldest  god  of  Chaldean  mythology  was  Ea,  lord  of 
the  earth,    without  whose   blessing    no    seeds  would 


28  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

germinate,  the  soil  would  have  no  fertilizing  power, 
and  there  would  be  no  harvests. 

The  thunder-god  of  the  ancient  Hindus,  who  smites 
the  dragon  clouds  and  pours  the  rain  down  upon  the 
earth  ;  the  Thor  of  old  German  and  Scandinavian  my- 
thology, who  hurls  his  crashing  hammer  through  the 
air  ;  the  Jupiter  Tonans  of  the  Romans  ;  the  wind-gods 
who  in  all  lands  control  the  gale  and  the  tempest,  are 
but  further  illustrations  of  the  prevalence  of  the  tend- 
ency of  all  times  and  countries  to  pay  special  homage  to 
the  great  forces  of  nature  that  are  ever  working  such 
mighty  wonders.  But  here  again  we  need  to  notice 
that,  as  in  the  lower  forms  of  religion  already  described, 
we  do  not  find  these  forces  worshipped  as  material  ob- 
jects. They  are  always  thought  of  as  spirits  manifesting 
superhuman  powers. 

As  the  experience  of  man  widens,  he  discovers  not 
only  that  he  can  destroy  the  tree  whose  spirit  he  wor- 
shipped, and  can  entrap  the  animals  and  subdue  them, 
but  also  that  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  do  not  vary  their 
action  at  their  own  option.  They  are  obliged  to  move 
about  in  certain  more  or  less  prescribed  courses.  Even 
the  clouds  are  driven  to  and  fro  by  some  superior  power 
and  are  not  free  to  follow  their  own  desires.  Hence  he 
easily  and  naturally  comes  to  see  the  truth  that  there 
must  be  powers  above  these  forces  that  are  far  more 
worthy  than  they  are  of  his  homage.  He  rejects  the 
notion  that  the  forces  of  nature  reveal  the  highest 
spirits,  and  he  looks  up  to  deities  that  can  use  these 
forces  freely  at  their  option. 

As  distinguished  from  nature-worship  and  other 
lower  forms  of  religion,  this  doctrine  is  called 
Polytheism,  although  it  differs  from  these  other 
forms  not  in   kind  but  only   in   degree.       Undoubt- 


Steps  in  the  Evolutio7i  of  Religion        29 


edly,  the  development  of  this  doctrine  is  closely 
related  to  the  development  of  the  social  and  gov- 
ernmental relations  existing  among  the  people  them- 
selves. When  chiefs  and  kings  begin  to  make  their 
appearance  in  any  community,  then  these  greater 
gods  begin  to  be  recognised  as  over  and  above  all  lesser 
spirits.  Oftentimes  the  kings  and  chiefs  themselves 
are  elevated  to  the  sphere  of  gods,  and  in  some  cases, 
even  while  alive,  receive  divine  honors.  Rarely,  how- 
ever, does  polytheism  do  away  with  any  of  the  lower 
forms  of  rehgion.  On  the  contrary,  it  usually  coexists 
with  belief  in  disembodied  spirits,  local  genii  of  rocks 
and  fountains  and  trees,  household  gods,  and  a  host  of 
other  good  and  evil  demons.  The  deities  of  this  form 
of  religion  simply  take  their  place  as  presiding  over  all 
inferior  gods,  using  them  as  messengers  or  agents  for 
the  furtherance  of  their  plans  and  purposes. 

At  first,  each  tribe  or  district  is  thought  of  as  having 
its  own  particular  deity.  But  as  the  tribes  intermingle 
and  learn  more  of  one  another,  the  tribal  gods  give  way 
to  national.  At  the  outset  the  national  gods  of  one 
country  are  regarded  as  distinct  from  those  of  another, 
but  of  equal  powers.  Even  the  ancient  Hebrews  con- 
sidered the  gods  of  other  nations,  such  as  those  of 
Assyria,  Phoenicia,  and  Egypt,  as  real  divinities. 

Many  tribes  and  peoples  have  risen  in  some  degree 
to  the  stage  of  polytheistic  thought,  but  the  nations 
that  carried  it  to  a  higher  degree  of  perfection  than  any 
others  were  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans.  Costly 
temples  were  erected  to  the  honor  of  their  gods.  Elabo- 
rate ritualistic  services  were  instituted  to  do  them 
reverence.  A  great  multitude  of  priests  and  priestesses 
devoted  their  lives  to  finding  out  and  enforcing  their 
will  and  purpose.     The  character  and  extent  of  this 


30  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

form  of  religion  are,  however,  so  familiar  that  there  is 
little  need  of  further  explanation  of  it  here. 

This  can  hardly  be  said  of  Monotheism,  the  next  step 
in  the  evolution  of  religion.  For  there  has  been  and  in 
some  quarters  still  is  a  great  divergence  of  opinion  re- 
garding its  historic  origin.  For  until  within  a  few 
generations,  it  was  the  common  belief  of  thinkers  on 
the  subject  of  religion  that  the  knowledge  of  the  exist- 
ence of  one  god  was  a  primitive  revelation,  made  to  the 
first  representatives  of  the  human  race,  and  handed  down 
by  them  to  their  posterity.  Polytheism  and  all  other 
forms  of  religion,  it  was  maintained,  are  a  degeneration 
from  ia  once  higher  form.  But  this  view  has  few  if  any 
advocates  among  recent  scholars.  For  it  is  now  known 
that  the  tendency  to  the  monotheistic  position  exists 
among  all  people  when  they  have  advanced  to  a  certain 
degree  of  mental  culture.  As  Jastrow  well  says : 
**  There  is  a  difference  in  the  degree  in  which  this  ten- 
dency is  emphasized,  but  whether  we  turn  to  Babylonia, 
Egypt,  India,  China,  or  Greece,  there  are  distinct  traces 
towards  concentrating  the  varied  manifestations  of  di- 
vine powers  in  a  single  source." 

This  tendency  is  a  perfectly  natural  one,  and  arises 
the  moment  man  begins  seriously  to  reflect  upon  the 
universe.  He  cannot  fail  to  observe  the  inequalities 
that  exist  among  the  deities,  and  to  realize  that  of  ne- 
cessity one  must  be  supreme  to  all  the  others.  When 
any  two  peoples  united  as  the  result  of  war  or  for  any 
other  reason,  the  superior  place  would  naturally  be  ac- 
corded to  the  deity  of  the  conquering  power;  and  as  a 
nation  grew  in  influence  and  became  conscious  of  its 
strength,  it  would  gradually  change  its  opinions  regard- 
ing the  gods  of  the  nations  about  it.  It  would  either 
do  as  the  Greeks  did  in  the  case  of  Ammon,  the  god  of 


Steps  in  the  Evolution  of  Religion        3 1 


the  Egyptians,  recognize  in  him  their  own  Zeus  as  ap- 
pearing in  another  form,  or  come  to  treat  other  gods  as 
inferior  deities  not  worthy  of  being  compared  with  their 
own  god,  as  the  Hebrews  looked  upon  Chemosh, 
the  supreme  god  of  the  Moabites,  in  compar- 
ison with  Jahveh,  or  Jehovah,  their  own  national 
deity. 

It  is  a  matter  of  history  that  monotheism  did  not 
originate  in  any  one  quarter  alone,  but  was  an  idea  at- 
tained independently  by  many  peoples  at  a  compara- 
tively early  stage  in  their  development. 

The  chief  contribution  of  the  Hebrews  to  religion  is 
not  their  monotheistic  idea,  but  the  emphasis  they  put 
upon  the  ethical  character  of  their  supreme  deity.  He 
was  not  mere  power  that  goes  stalking  through  the 
universe,  but  a  being  of  righteousness  that  deals  with 
men  and  nations  according  to  their  moral  character. 
It  was  this  view  that  caused  the  worship  of  Jehovah  to 
supplant  that  of  all  the  other  gods  among  the  Hebrews 
themselves,  and  to  survive  the  crash  of  faiths  that  early 
befell  the  entire  ancient  world. 

'  In  this  brief  outline  of  the  main  steps  that  have  been 
taken  in  the  development  of  religion,  it  is  not  claimed 
that  any  hard  and  fast  distinction  can  be  made  between 
them.  Indeed,  it  is  the  opinion  of  competent  authori- 
ties that  all  the  different  forms  of  religion  described 
above  coexisted  among  the  Hindus,  the  Greeks,  the 
old  Norsemen,  and  to  some  extent  still  coexist  among 
modern  Africans,  as  well  as  the  negroes  and  Indians 
of  our  own  land.  Nor  is  it  held  that  any  sudden  or 
complete  transition  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  stage  has 
actually  taken  place  at  any  time  in  history.  On  the 
contrary,  the  changes  have  been  gradual,  and  many 
evidences  of  the  survival  of  the  old  amid  the  new  exist 


3  2  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

in  the  notions  and  customs  of  even  the  most  highly- 
civilized  and  intelligent  nations  of  our  own  day. 

Amulets,  charms,  lucky  stones  and  coins,  the  ven- 
eration of  sacred  relics,  everything  that  goes  under  the 
name  of  Mascot,  are  all  legitimately  descended  from 
fetishism  ;  just  as  belief  in  ghosts  and  haunted  houses, 
fear  of  the  dark,  and  the  like,  come  from  a  more  pri- 
mary form  of  religion.  Current  ideas  concerning  lucky 
and  unlucky  days  and  numbers,  spilling  salt,  throwing 
rice  at  a  wedding,  charming  away  warts,  are  survivals 
of  a  similar  sort.  So,  too,  are  the  present  notions  of 
man  as  to  sacred  days  and  places,  sacred  utensils,  holy 
water.  And  we  should  not  hesitate  to  class  in  the  list 
of  primitive  and  outgrown  religious  ideas  the  worship 
of  saints,  and  the  common  belief  that  a  person  acquires 
peculiar  supernatural  authority  in  religious  matters  by 
the  laying  on  of  hands,  or  by  any  other  form  of  ordina- 
tion. For  they  are  notions  on  a  par  with  the  old  Greek 
tradition  that  one  gets  a  supernatural  inspiration  by 
the  very  act  of  paying  a  visit  to  the  fountain  of  Parnas- 
sus, or  taking  a  draft  at  the  Pierian  spring.  But  the 
most  striking  of  all  is  the  present  popular  belief  that 
between  man  and  the  Supreme  Being  there  exists  an 
ascending  gradation  of  angels  and  archangels  on  the 
one  hand,  and  evil  spirits  on  the  other,  reaching  up  to 
a  supreme  evil  demon ,  who,  under  the  title  of  Devil  or 
Satan,  is  supposed  to  be  the  author  of  the  sin  and 
misery  of  mankind. 

It  might  be  objected  to  this  outline  of  the  develop- 
ment of  religion  that  no  place  is  left  in  it  for  the 
worship  of  idols.  This  omission  is  by  no  means  an 
accident,  for  it  is  based  on  the  conviction  that  idolatry 
is  not  an  actual,  or  even  a  possible  form  of  religion,  if 
it  is  taken  to  mean  that  human  beings  have  ever  paid 


Steps  in  the  Evolution  of  Religion        33 


divine  honors  to  images  made  of  wood  or  stone,  or  to 
any  other  material  object.  What  the  so-called  idolator 
actually  worships  is  the  spirit  that  the  image  is  sup- 
posed to  represent.  If  he  believes  the  spirit  has  gone 
out  of  the  object  or  image,  he  treats  it  with  undisguised 
contempt. 

That  there  is  no  real  difference  between  idolatry  and 
fetishism  is  well  illustrated  by  the  way  the  Chinese 
often  treat  the  images  of  their  gods.  As  described  by 
an  eye-witness,  if  after  long  praying  they  do  not  get 
what  they  wish,  they  call  the  god  all  the  hard  names 
they  can  think  of,  and  cry  out,  ''  How  now,  dog  of  a 
spirit !  we  give  you  a  lodging  in  a  magnificent  temple, 
we  gild  you  handsomely,  feed  you  well,  and  offer 
incense  to  you;  yet  after  all  this  care,  you  are  so 
ungrateful  as  to  refuse  us  what  we  ask  of  you."  Then 
they  pull  the  image  down  from  its  pedestal,  tie  cords 
around  it,  and  drag  it  through  the  mud  and  offal  of 
the  streets  to  punish  the  god  for  the  expense  of  the 
perfumery  they  have  wasted  upon  him. 

Kvery  image-maker  the  world  over  does  his  best  to 
embody  the  ideas  of  the  person  for  whom  the  image  is 
made.  He  knows  well  enough  that  unless  he  does 
this,  he  will  receive  no  compensation  for  his  labor. 
When  Brahma  is  represented  with  dozens  of  hands, 
Diana  with  a  hundred  breasts,  and  other  greater  or  less 
deities  with  impossible  features  and  accessories,  it  is 
simply  an  attempt  to  express  the  superhuman  qualities 
of  these  beings,  not  to  caricature  their  powers. 

If  these  steps  in  the  evolution  are  approximately 
true  to  fact,  we  see  how  weak  and  erroneous  the  posi- 
tion is  that  makes  religion  the  invention  of  priests  and 
politicians  for  the  purpose  of  terrorizing  the  people  into 
submission  to  their  authority,  and  securing  the  contin- 


3 


34  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

uance  of  their  power.  This  opinion  was  strongly  ad- 
vocated by  certain  English  writers  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  had  many  followers  ;  among  them  the  poet 
Shelley  was  one  of  the  most  prominent.  It  widely  pre- 
vailed in  France  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  and 
was  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  its  horrors.  Besides  be- 
ing based  on  a  false  and  superiScial  idea  of  what  relig- 
ion is,  it  ignores  the  fact  that  religion  is  older  than  any 
form  of  priesthood.  The  priest  is,  in  point  of  fact, 
a  conservator,  and  not  an  innovator.  He  chiefly 
concerns  himself  with  perpetuating  what  already  is. 
His  hold  upon  the  community  is  primarily  due  to  the 
influence  religion  has  over  men,  not  to  his  ability  to 
manipulate  that  religion.  He  may,  of  course,  unduly 
increase  his  influence,  and  turn  religion  into  wrong 
channels  for  personal  ends,  but  the  extent  to  which  he 
has  done  so  is  grossly  exaggerated  in  many  quarters. 
For  such  a  claim  cannot  be  borne  out  by  a  careful 
study  of  the  historical  facts. 

In  the  light  of  this  view  of  the  evolution  of  religion, 
we  can  see  how  irrational  it  is  to  divide  religions  into 
true  and  false,  instead  of  classifying  them  as  primitive 
and  developed.  It  was  maintained  by  Empedocles 
among  the  ancient  Greeks  that  all  religions  are  false 
because  they  are  the  product  of  a  diseased  mind,  and 
Feuerbach  in  the  last  centur>^  strongly  advocated  the 
same  view  among  the  Germans. 

While  few,  if  any,  maintain  that  opinion  at  present, 
there  are  many  who  hold  that  all  religions  are  false 
except  one,  and  that  the  one  they  themselves  have 
come  to  adopt.  The  Jew  does  this  who  asserts  that 
God  by  a  perpetual  covenant,  recorded  in  the  Old 
Testament,  has  made  his  own  race  the  sole  repository 
of  his  will.     The  Islamite  does  this  who  regards  the 


Steps  in  the  Evolution  of  Religion        35 

Koran  alone  as  the  sole  guide  to  truth  and  life.  And 
the  Christian  who  sees  in  the  New  Testament  the  only 
source  of  religious  faith  and  practice  belongs  to  the 
same  class.  No  writer  has  given  us  a  more  vivid 
picture  of  the  erroneous  way  of  regarding  the  religions 
of  the  world  than  Milton  in  his  Paradise  Lost.  That 
all  religions  except  the  Christian  are  pure  inventions 
of  the  Devil  to  ensnare  the  unwary  is  his  fundamental 
thought. 

This  position  has  been  the  source  of  untold  mischief 
and  suffering  in  the  past,  and  immensely  impedes  the 
progress  of  mankind  at  present.  It  is  contrary  to 
actual  fact,  and  is  based  upon  the  false  assumption 
that  man  possesses  the  ability  to  acquire  absolute  cer- 
tainty in  religious  matters,  a  thing  which  is  denied  to 
him  in  every  other  sphere. 

The  truth  is  that  man's  religion  develops  as  he  him- 
self develops.  The  steps  in  the  evolution  of  religion 
are  the  steps  in  his  own  mental  advancement.  There 
is  never  a  time  after  he  comes  into  conscious  possession 
of  his  powers  as  a  person  when  he  is  without  religion, 
and  there  is  no  possibility  of  his  outgrowing  religion. 
He  does  not  get  his  religion  out  of  any  book,  but  pri- 
marily out  of  the  experiences  of  his  own  mind  and 
heart.  The  experiences  of  others  are  a  help  to  him 
only  as  he  reproduces  them  in  his  own.  The  more  sen- 
sual he  is,  the  more  sensual  will  be  his  religion,  and 
the  more  rational  and  pure  his  life  is,  the  more  refined 
and  spiritual  will  his  religion  become.  In  other  words, 
the  more  of  a  man  he  is  himself,  the  loftier  will  his  con- 
ception be  of  the  Maker  and  Sustainer  of  all  truth  and 
life. 

The  reason  for  this  is  that  every  man  is  so  con- 
structed that  he  must  make  his  god  in  his  own  image. 


36  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

Religion  arises  in  the  ability  of  man  to  form  an  ideal  of 
things  that  transcend  the  real.  A  man  without  imagi- 
nation would  be  without  religion,  for  he  would  be  no 
longer  a  man,  but  w^ould  have  sunk  down  to  the  level 
of  the  brute.  No  man  ever  worshipped  an  abstraction. 
He  pays  homage  only  to  some  concrete  thing,  and  his 
ability  to  form  a  picture  of  a  Power  higher  than  him- 
self depends  upon  his  imagination,  which  simply  takes 
the  highest  in  his  own  experience  and  attributes  it  to 
his  god.  This  has  been  true  of  man  in  all  stages  of  his 
history,  is  true  now,  and  we  cannot  think  of  a  time 
when  it  will  be  otherwise. 

The  charge  that  religion  is  anthropomorphic  is  ad- 
mitted without  hesitation.  For  this  is  true  of  every- 
thing beyond  the  merely  physical,  of  which  we  have 
any  knowledge.  We  cannot  think  of  any  being  above 
ourselves,  unless  we  assume  that  being  to  be  in  some 
respects  at  least  in  our  own  image.  It  is  psycho- 
logically impossible  not  to  do  so,  if  we  make  the 
attempt  at  all.  Every  man  must  worship  his  own 
thought  of  God,  and  his  progress  in  civilization  is  best 
measured  by  the  worthiness  of  that  thought.  The  re- 
ligious nature  of  man,  when  once  aroused,  can  never 
be  lulled  to  rest.  It  must  feed  upon  something.  For 
it  is  the  most  fundamental  and  pervasive  of  all  man's 
powers.  It  is  perpetually  yearning  for  expression,  and 
can  only  for  a  time  be  partially  smothered.  It  will 
reach  its  full  and  complete  fruition  in  every  one  of  us 
only  when  we  come  to  realize  in  our  own  experience 
the  most  commonplace  and  yet  truest  saying  of  all  the 
ages  upon  this  subject,  that  the  highest  of  all  exist- 
ences in  this  universe  is  "not  far  from  every  one  of  us  ; 
for  in  him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being." 


CHAPTER  III. 

SACRKD    BOOKS   AND    HOW   THKY   ORIGINATE. 

a.  The  Sacred  Tablets  of  the  Babylonians.— 

In  treating  of  the  subject  of  the  relation  of  bibles 
to  religion  we  need,  first  of  all,  to  note  the  fact 
that  three  things  existed  in  this  world  long  before 
there  were  any  bibles,  namely,  nature,  man,  and 
God. 

The  "  little  speck  of  matter  "  in  our  stellar  universe 
which  we  call  the  earth  had  passed  through  innumer- 
able changes  in  form  and  condition  ages  before  man 
appeared  upon  its  surface,  and  man  had  established 
elaborate  systems  of  religious  worship  on  many  por- 
tions of  our  planet  centuries  before  a  bible  of  any 
description  had  even  been  thought  of.  For  the  mo- 
ment a  human  being  begins  to  attain  a  consciousness 
of  his  own  existence  and  the  existence  of  a  world 
around  and  above  him,  he  forms  at  once  some  sort  of 
.  religion,  and  there  is  never  a  time  in  his  history  as  a 
man  when  he  is  without  religion. 

Hence  a  very  little  reflection  will  lead  us  to  see  that 
a  bible  cannot  be  brought  into  existence  until  man  has 
had  some  experience  with  nature  and  has  learned  to 
look  with  some  degree  of  clearness  through  nature  up 
to  superhuman  powers.  No  bible  can  create  this  ex- 
perience. All  it  can  do  is  to  record  what  has  been 
experienced  in  the  past  and  anticipate  with  more  or 
less  assurance  what  may  come  within  the  realm  of 

37 


38  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

future  experience.  Religion,  therefore,  cannot  be  based 
upon  any  bible.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  religion  that 
makes  bibles,  not  bibles  religion. 

Nevertheless,  the  content  and  form  of  religion  may 
come  to  be  immensely  affected  by  their  influence,  and 
such  has  been  the  historic  fact.  Every  religion  of  any 
moment  in  the  world  has  sooner  or  later  found  itself  in 
possession  of  a  bible  in  which  it  treasured  up  its  pro- 
foundest  thoughts  and  its  noblest  inspirations.  It  is, 
therefore,  our  present  purpose  to  state  very  briefly  the 
leading  features  of  some  of  these  bibles,  to  set  forth  the 
opinion  of  scholars  as  to  how  they  grew  to  be  what  they 
now  are,  and  at  the  same  time  to  estimate  in  a  general 
way  their  value  to  the  cause  of  religion  in  our  day. 
Taking  them  up,  as  far  as  possible,  in  their  chronologi- 
cal order,  we  mention  first  of  all  the  Sacred  Tablets  of 
the  Babylonians. 

There  is  at  present  no  agreement  among  scholars  as 
to  what  portion  of  the  earth  first  produced  a  permanent 
record  of  its  religious  life,  and  many  are  of  the  opinion 
that  the  origin  of  civilization  will  never  be  traced  to  any 
one  people  or  country.  All,  however,  now  admit  that 
the  Sacred  Tablets  recently  unearthed  in  Babylonia  are 
among  the  oldest  literary  records  of  any  sort  yet  dis- 
covered, and  that  they  carry  us  back  to  a  date  far  be- 
yond the  wildest  dreams  of  scholars  a  half-century 
ago. 

As  early  as  1842  M.  Botta,  a  Frenchman,  began  mak- 
ing excavations,  in  a  mound  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Tigris,  not  far  from  Mosul.  In  it  he  discovered  the 
ruins  of  a  magnificent  palace.  From  the  inscriptions 
on  the  walls  and  from  other  data  it  was  shown  that  the 
palace  was  erected  by  Sargon  II.,  who  reigned  over 
Assyria  from  721  B.C.  to  705  B.C.     Inspired   by  Botta's 


The  Sacred  Tablets  of  the  Babylonians    39 


remarkable  successes,  Sir  Austin  Henry  Layard,  an 
eminent  English  archaeologist,  a  few  years  later  started 
to  open  some  mounds  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the  river 
a  few  miles  to  the  south  of  Mosul.  The  result  was  that 
he  soon  unearthed  the  remains  of  the  ancient  city  of 
Nineveh,  bringing  to  light  many  palaces  and  temples 
still  filled  with  the  sculptured  treasures  of  literature  and 
art. 

His  principal  find,  however,  was  a  great  collection  of 
clay  tablets,  covered  with  cuneiform  or  wedge-shaped 
inscriptions,  which  turned  out  to  be  the  famous  royal 
"brick "  library  gathered  by  Asshurbanipal,  who  suc- 
ceeded to  the  Assyrian  throne  in  668  B.C.  Some 
30,000  fragments  of  this  library  are  now  in  the  British 
Museum  and,  together  with  the  notable  finds  made 
shortly  after  by  H.  Rassam  and  George  Smith,  give  us 
on  the  whole  a  most  satisfactory  knowledge  of  the  re- 
ligious beliefs  and  rites  of  this  ancient  people. 

But  what  is  still  more  remarkable,  recent  discoveries 
show  us  that  these  tablets  take  us  back  to  a  time  far 
more  remote  than  that  of  Asshurbanipal,  or  even  of  the 
existence  of  the  Assyrians  as  a  nation.  In  1854  Sir 
Henry  Rawlinson  began  uncovering  the  sites  of  the 
ancient  cities  of  Babylonia.  The  French  and  German 
governments  later  took  up  the  work.  Expeditions  from 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania  led  by  Dr.  John  C. 
Peters  and  Professor  Hilprecht  have  within  the  last  few 
years  explored  the  region  of  Nippur  and  Mugheir,  the 
biblical  Ur  of  the  Chaldees.  From  the  material  thus 
acquired  it  is  now  ascertained  that  the  tablets  of  Layard 
are  copies  of  originals  found  in  the  far  more  ancient 
Babylonian  temples,  and  that  they  go  back  to  a  time 
much  earlier  than  anything  found  in  the  mounds  of 
Assyria  proper.     In  fact,  scholars  now  tell  us  that  the 


40  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

religion  of  Assyria  was  borrowed  from  and  was  identi- 
cal with  that  of  Babylonia,  and  it  is  the  opinion  of 
many  that  these  tablets  acquaint  us  with  ideas  and  con- 
ditions that  had  come  to  be  current  in  that  part  of  the 
world  at  least  4500  years  B.C.  Even  then  there 
existed  a  number  of  states  with  well-established  govern- 
ments and  an  extensive  religious  cult. 

These  tablets  show  us  that  the  ancient  Babylonians 
and  Assyrians  were  a  very  religious  people.  Their 
wars  were  carried  on  in  the  name  of  the  gods  and  so 
indeed  were  all  other  important  undertakings.  The 
priests  were  not  only  the  intermediaries  between  the 
gods  and  the  people,  but  also  the  judges  of  the  courts, 
the  scribes,  and  the  medical  advisers. 

There  is  no  good  reason  for  holding  that  the  Baby- 
lonians obtained  their  religious  ideas  from  any  outside 
source.  "The  earliest  religion  of  Accad  (the  ancient 
name  of  Upper  Babylonia)  was,"  says  A.  H.  Sayce,  "  a 
Shamanism  resembling  that  of  the  Siberian  or  Samoyed 
tribes  of  to-day.  Every  object  had  its  spirit,  good  or 
bad  ;  and  the  control  of  these  spirits  was  in  the  hands 
of  priests  and  sorcerers.  The  world  swarmed  with 
them,  especially  with  the  demons,  and  there  was 
scarcely  any  action  which  did  not  risk  demoniac  pos- 
session." The  tablets  reveal  a  fully  developed  system 
of  nature-worship.  Anu  represents  the  heavens  ;  Sha- 
mash,  the  sun ;  Sin,  the  moon;  and  Raman,  the  weather. 
The  head  of  the  Assyrian  pantheon  was  Asshur  or 
Assur,  and  the  chief  national  god  of  Babylon  was  Mar- 
duk.  "The  most  striking  difference,"  says  Prof.  D. 
G.  Lyon,  ' '  between  the  pantheons  of  Assyria  and  Baby- 
lonia is  that  Asshur  had  no  place  in  the  latter,  while 
Marduk  has  place  in  the  former,  though  not  the  first 
place." 


The  Sacred  Tablets  of  the  Babylonians    41 

There  was  a  strong  tendency  among  these  people  to 
group  their  gods  in  triads,  and  this  accounts  for  some 
of  their  cosmological  views.  The  most  important  triad 
consisted  of  Anu,  the  god  of  the  heavens  ;  Bel  or  Baal, 
the  god  of  the  earth  ;  and  Ka,  the  god  of  the  watery 
abyss.  The  usual  way  of  representing  the  gods  was 
by  symbols,  or  by  the  combination  of  the  human  form 
with  that  of  some  animal.  The  moon,  for  example, 
was  often  represented  by  the  number  30,  and  a  winged 
bull  with  a  human  head  represented  the  divine 
guardian  of  temples  and  palaces. 

The  inscriptions  on  these  tablets  in  the  British 
Museum  are  written  partly  in  prose  and  partly  in 
poetry.  The  prose  pieces  tell  us  of  royal  campaigns, 
the  building  of  temples,  omens  lucky  and  unlucky,  and 
the  like.  They  are  supposed  to  belong  to  the  historical 
period,  and  may  be  dated  with  considerable  exactness. 
The  poetical  parts  consist  of  prayers,  hymns,  magic 
formulas,  incantations,  and  especially  fragments  of 
cosmological  and  other  mythical  poems  that  ' '  appear 
to  go  back,  at  least  so  far  as  their  material  is  concerned, 
to  a  very  remote  antiquity." 

One  of  the  tablets  gives  an  account  of  creation  which 
very  closely  resembles  the  account  in  Genesis  and  the 
Sacred  Books  of  the  Phoenicians.  All  place  the  begin- 
ning of  things  in  a  watery  abyss.  Another  tablet 
describes  how  the  gods  made  a  beautiful  land  with 
rivers  and  trees  and  put  men  in  it ;  the  place  being  in 
all  probability  the  same  region  as  the  Garden  of  Kden 
described  in  Genesis.  Accounts  are  also  given  of  the 
Flood,  the  origin  of  the  Sabbath,  and  fragments  of 
stories  resembling  those  of  the  fall  of  man,  the  Tower 
of  Babel  or  Babylonia,  and  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac.  Ac- 
cording to  Professor  Toy,  whose  translations  are  here 


42  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

used,  the  first  of  the  tablets  describing  creation  reads 

as  follows  : 

*'i.  When  the  upper  region  was  not  yet  called  heaven, 

2.  And  the  lower  region  was  not  yet  called  earth, 

3.  And  the  abyss  of  Hades  had  not  yet  opened  its  arms, 

4.  Then  the  chaos  of  waters  gave  birth  to  all  of  them 

5.  And  the  waters  were  gathered  into  one  place. 

6.  No   men   yet  dwelt    together ;   no  animals    yet  wandered 

about ; 

7.  None  of  the  gods  had  yet  been  born. 

8.  Their  names  were  not  spoken  ;  their  attributes  were  not 

known. 

9.  Then  the  eldest  of  the  gods, 

10.  Lakhmu  and  Lakhamu,  were  born 

11.  And  grew  up. 

12.  Assur  and  Kissur  were  born  next 

13.  And  lived  through  long  periods. 

14.  Anu      (Rest  of  tablet  missing.)" 

The  fifth  tablet  continues  the   account  of  creation 
and  describes  the  origin  of  the  Sabbath  : 
"1.  He  constructed  dwellings  for  the  great  gods. 

2.  He    fixed    up    constellations,    whose    figures    were   like 

animals. 

3.  He  made  the  year.     Into  four  quarters  he  divided  it. 

4.  Twelve  months  he  established,  with  their  constellations 

three  by  three. 

5.  And  for  the  days  of  the  year  he  appointed  festivals. 

6.  He  made  dwellings  for  the  planets  :  for  their  rising  and 

setting. 

7.  And  that  nothing  should  go  amiss,  and  that  the  course  of 

none  should  be  retarded 

8.  He  placed  with  them  the  dwellings  of  Bel  and  Ea. 

9.  He  opened  great  gates,  on  every  side  : 

10.  He  made  strong  the  portals,  on  the  left  and  on  the  right. 

11.  In  the  centre  he  placed  luminaries. 

12.  The  moon  he  appointed  to  rule  the  night 

13.  And  to  wander  through  the  night,  until  the  dawn  of  day. 

14.  Every  mouth  without  fail  he  made  holy  assembly  days. 


The  Sacred  Tablets  of  the  Babylonians    43 


15.  In  the  beginning  of  the  month,  at  the  rising  of  the  night, 

16.  It  shot  forth  its  horns  to  illuminate  the  heavens. 

17.  On  the  seventh  day  he  appointed  a  holy  day, 

18.  And  to  cease  from  all  business  he  commanded. 

19.  Then  arose  the  sun  in  the  horizon  of  heaven  in  (glory)." 
The  longest  and  in  some  respects  the  most  consider- 
able of  these  Babylonian  productions  is  what  is  com- 
monly known  as  the  Izdubar  poem  discovered  by 
George  Smith  in  1872.  It  is  inscribed  upon  twelve 
tablets,  some  of  which  are  well  preserved.  The  first 
introduces  the  hero  and  represents  him  as  the  deliverer 
of  his  country  from  the  Elamites,  an  event  probably 
preceding  2000  B.C.  The  sixth  recounts  the  love  of 
the  goddess  Ishtar  for  the  hero,  to  whom  she  proposes 
marriage,  but  the  proposal  is  rejected  because  of  the 
fatal  character  of  her  previous  loves.  Then  she  curses 
her  lover  and  follows  him  continuously  with  her  wrath. 
She  descends  into  the  lower  world  for  means  to  circum- 
vent him.  The  seventh  tablet  gives  a  lengthy  account 
of  what  takes  place  there. 

The  most  interesting  tablet  of  this  series  is  the  elev- 
enth. In  it  we  have  a  story  of  the  Flood  "almost 
identical  with  that  of  the  Book  of  Genesis."  Bel,  the 
demiurge  of  the  Babylonian  system,  enraged  at  the 
evil  conduct  of  mankind,  determines  to  destroy  the  en- 
tire human  race  by  a  flood.  All  the  other  gods  give 
their  approval  except  Ea,  who,  hearing  of  the  decree, 
sends  for  Hasisadra,  the  Noah  of  those  days,  and  di- 
rects him  to  build  a  great  ship  in  order  to  save  himself 
and  family  and  "  the  seeds  of  life." 

Ea's  words  to  him  are  : 
"  '  Ivcave  thy  house  and  build  a  .ship. 

They  will  destroy  the  seeds  of  life. 

Do  thou  preserve  in  life  and  hither  bring  the  seeds  of  life, 

Of  every  sort  into  the  ship.'  " 


44  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

(Here  follow  the  dimensions  of  the  ship,  but  the 
numbers  are  lost.) 

Hasisadra  hesitates  and  says  that,  even  if  he  should 
succeed  in  carrying  out  such  a  colossal  undertaking, 
he  would  be  mocked  by  the  people  and  elders  for  doing 
it.  Ka,  however,  insists  and  the  ship  is  built.  Into 
it,  says  Hasisadra, 

*♦  *  All  that  I  had  I  brought  together. 
All  of  silver  and  all  of  gold. 

And  all  of  the  seed  of  life  into  the  ship  I  brought. 
And  my  household,  men  and  women. 
The  cattle  of  the  field,  the  beasts  of  the  field 
And  all  my  kin  I  caused  to  enter.'  " 

On  the  day  he  was  to  embark  fear  almost  over- 
whelmed him.     He  sa5^s: 

** '  Yet  into  the  ship  I  went,  behind  me  the  door  I  closed. 

Into  the  hands  of  the  steersman  I  gave  the  ship  with  its  cargo. 

Then  from  the  heavens'  horizon  rose  the  dark  cloud. 

Raman  uttered  his  thunder, 

Nabu  and  Sarru  rushed  on. 

Over  hill  and  dale  strode  the  throne-bearers. 

Adar  sent  ceaseless  streams,  floods  the  Anunnaki  brought. 

Raman's  billows  up  to  heaven  mount, 
All  light  to  darkness  is  turned.'  " 

Even  the  gods  themselves  were  frightened  at  the 
havoc  that  was  made  and  cowered  together  in  lamenta- 
tion and  despair.     But,  says  Hasisadra, 

"  'Six  days  and  seven  nights  ruled  wind  and  flood  and  storm. 
But  when  the  seventh  day  broke,  subsided  the  storm  and  the 
flood. 

The  upper  dwellings  of  men  were  ruined. 
Corpses  floated  like  trees. 


The  Sacred  Tablets  of  the  Babylonians    45 

A  window  I  opened,  on  my  face  the  daylight  fell. 

I  shuddered  and  sat  me  down  weeping. 

Over  my  face  flowed  my  tears. 

I  rode  over  regions  of  land,  on  a  terrible  sea. 

Then  rose  one  piece  of  land  twelve  measures  high. 

To  the  land  Nizir  the  ship  was  steered. 

The  mountain  Nizir  held  the  ship  fast  and  let  it  no  more  go.'  '* 

Then  follows  an  account  of  the  sending  forth  of  a 
dove,  the  final  appearance  of  dry  land,  the  disembark- 
ment  from  the  ship,  and  the  building  of  an  altar  to  the 
gods  on  the  mount.     Hasisadra  says: 

"  '  At  the  dawn  of  the  seventh  day 
I  took  a  dove  and  sent  it  forth. 
Hither  and  thither  flew  the  dove. 
No  resting-place  it  found,  back  to  me  it  came. 
A  swallow  I  took  and  sent  it  forth. 
No  resting-place  it  found,  and  back  to  me  it  came. 
A  raven  I  took  and  sent  it  forth. 

Forth  flew  the  raven  and  saw  that  the  water  had  fallen. 
Carefully  waded  on  but  came  not  back. 
All  the  animals  then  to  the  four  winds  I  sent. 
A  sacrifice  I  offered. 
An  altar  I  built  on  the  mountain  top.'  " 

About  this  altar  the  gods  hold  a  council.  They  try- 
to  induce  Bel  to  abate  his  efforts  utterly  to  annihilate 
the  race  of  men.  '  Ka  says  to  him  : 

"  '  Thou  art  the  valiant  leader  of  the  gods. 
Why  hast  thou  heedlessly  wrought  and  brought  on  the  flood? 
Let  the  sinner  bear  his  sin,  the  wrongdoer  his  wrong  ; 
Yield  to  our  request,  that  he  be  not  wholly  destroyed. 
Instead  of  sending  a   flood,   send  lions  that  men  may  be 

reduced  ; 
Instead  of  sending  a  flood,  send  hyenas  that  men  may  be 

reduced  ; 
Instead  of  sending  a  flood,  send  flames  to  waste  the  land  ; 
Instead  of  sending  a  flood,  send  pestilence  that  men  may  be 

reduced.'  " 


46  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

Finally  ' '  right  reason  ' '  comes  to  Bel  and  he  enters 
the  ship,  takes  Hasisadra  by  the  hand,  and  lifts  him 
up.  Then  he  raises  up  his  wife  and  places  her  hand 
in  her  husband's,  giving  them  both  his  blessing. 

Professor  Toy  in  commenting  upon  the  inscription 
on  this  tablet  says  :  * '  It  is  now  generally  agreed  that 
the  Hebrew  story  of  the  Flood  is  taken  from  the  Baby- 
lonian, either  mediately  through  the  Canaanites  (for 
the  Babylonians  had  occupied  Canaan  before  the  six- 
teenth century  B.C.),  or  immediately  during  the  exile 
in  the  sixth  century.  The  Babylonian  account  is  more 
picturesque,  the  Hebrew  more  restrained  and  solemn.'* 

Some  of  the  hymns  inscribed  on  these  tablets,  like 
the  one  to  the  seven  evil  spirits  celebrating  their  mys- 
terious power,  are  of  a  lower  order  of  religious  feeling, 
reminding  us  of  the  magical  incantations  of  the  savage 
tribes  of  to-day.  But  others  indicate  sublimity  and 
depth  of  feeling  that  would  compare  not  unfavorably 
with  many  in  the  Hebrew  Psalter. 

The  following  are  extracts  from  some  of  these  so- 
called  psalms  : 

'*  I,  thy  servant,  full  of  sin  cry  to  thee. 
The  sinner's  earnest  prayer  thou  dost  accept. 
The  man  on  whom  thou  lookest  lives. 
Mistress  of  all,  queen  of  mankind, 
Merciful  one,  to  whom  it  is  good  to  turn. 
Who  acceptest  the  sigh  of  the  heart." 

"  Food  have  I  not  eaten,  weeping  was  my  nourishment. 
Water  have  I  not  drunk,  tears  were  my  drink. 
My  heart  has  not  been  joyful  nor  my  spirit  glad. 
Many  are  my  sins,  sorrowful  my  soul. 
O  my  lady,  make  me  to  know  my  doing. 
Make  me  a  place  of  rest. 
Cleanse  my  sin,  lift  up  my  face." 


The  Sacred  Tablets- of  the  Babylonians    47 

*'  I  sought  for  help,  but  no  one  took  my  hand. 
I  wept,  but  no  one  to  me  came. 
I  cry  aloud,  there  is  none  that  hears  me. 
Sorrowful  I  lie  on  the  ground,  look  not  up. 
The  feet  of  my  goddess  I  kiss. 
To  the  known  and  unknown  god  I  loud  do  sigh. 
To  the  known  and  unknown  goddess  I  loud  do  sigh. 
O  lord,  look  on  me,  hear  my  prayer. 
O  goddess,  look  on  me,  hear  my  prayer." 

The  sin  I  have  committed  turn  thou  to  favor  ! 

The  evil  I  have  done  may  the  wind  carry  it  away  ! 

Tear  in  pieces  my  wrong-doings  like  a  garment ! 

My  god,  my  sins  are  seven  times  seven — forgive  my  sin  ! 

My  goddess,  my  sins  are  seven  times  seven — forgive  my  sin  ! 

Known  and  unknown  god,  my  sins  are  seven  times  seven — 

forgive  my  sins  ! 
Known  and^unknown  goddess,  my  sins  are  seven  times  seven  ; 

forgive  my  sins. 
Forgive  my  sins  and  I  will  humbly  bow  before  thee." 

Among  the  fragments  of  Asshurbanipal's  library 
taken  to  the  British  Museum  by  lyayard  were  a  num- 
ber of  broken  portions  of  a  law  code.  These  fragments 
were  declared  at  the  time  by  two  eminent  German 
scholars,  Dr.  Bruno  Meissner  and  Dr.  Friedrich  De- 
litzsch,  to  be  parts  of  a  code  reaching  as  far  back  at 
least  as  2300  B.C.  Their  opinion  had  a  most  triumph- 
ant vindication  in  the  winter  of  1 901-2,  when  there  was 
unearthed  in  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  Persian  city  of 
Susa  the  stele  or  column  of  Hammurabi,  now  uni- 
versally acknowledged  to  be  "  the  most  important 
monument  of  early  civilization  yet  discovered — a  law 
code  anteceding  the  oldest  hitherto  known  by  upward 
of  a  thousand  years." 

This  monolith,  now  in  the  lyouvre  at  Paris,  is  seven 
feet  four  inches  in  height,  and  on  it  are  chiselled  both  a 


48  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

bas-relief  and  an  extended  text.  The  bas-relief,  which 
is  twenty-six  inches  high  and  twenty-four  inches  broad, 
represents  Hammurabi  in  the  act  of  adoring  the  sun- 
god  Shamash,  from  whom  he  receives  the  laws  in- 
scribed on  the  rest  of  this  ''table  of  stone."  They 
consist  of  a  prologue,  an  epilogue,  and  282  edicts. 

In  the  prologue  Hammurabi  thus  describes  his  mis- 
sion (Harper's  translation  of  the  code  is  here  used)  : 
' '  Anu  and  Bel  called  me,  Hammurabi,  the  exalted 
prince,  the  worshipper  of  the  gods,  to  cause  justice  to 
prevail  in  the  land,  to  destroy  the  wicked  and  the  evil, 
to  prevent  the  strong  from  oppressing  the  weak,  to  go 
forth  like  Shamash  over  the  Black  Head  Race,  to 
enlighten  the  land  and  further  the  welfare  of  the 
people." 

The  analysis  of  the  code  made  by  Professor  Lyon  of 
Harvard  divides  it  into  three  main  parts :  the  intro- 
duction, which  deals  with  the  source  of  justice  and 
what  should  be  done  to  insure  the  purity  of  the  court 
(1-5);  a  section  on  property,  both  real  and  personal, 
along  with  the  laws  relating  to  its  exchange  (6-126); 
and  a  section  on  the  rights  and  duties  of  persons,  in 
which  such  matters  are  taken  up  as  marriage  and  di- 
vorce, the  treatment  of  criminals,  and  the  price  to  be 
paid  for  different  kinds  of  labor  (127-282). 

According  to  this  code,  if  a  judge  had  accepted  a  bribe 
in  making  a  decision,  he  was  obliged  to  pay  twelve 
times  the  amount  of  the  false  judgment  and  was  ex- 
pelled from  the  bench.  The  thief  and  the  receiver  of 
stolen  goods  were  held  equally  responsible.  In  case  a 
drought  or  a  flood  destroyed  a  debtor's  crops,  interest 
could  not  be  demanded  of  him  that  year.  If  any  one 
failed  to  keep  his  part  of  the  dyke  in  good  repair,  he 
was  liable  for  all  damage  resulting  therefrom.     When 


The  Sacred  Tablets  of  the  Babylonians    49 


a  man  divorced  his  wife,  he  was  obliged  to  give  her  an 
allowance  and  make  good  the  dowry  she  received  from 
her  father. 

The  lex  talionis  was  applied  in  some  cases.  For  ex- 
ample: "  If  a  man  destroy  the  eye  of  another  man,  they 
shall  destroy  his  eye."  "  If  one  break  a  man's  bone, 
they  shall  break  his  bone. "  "  If  a  man  knock  out  the 
tooth  of  a  man  of  his  own  rank,  they  shall  knock  out 
his  tooth. ' '  "  If  a  builder  build  a  house  for  a  man  and 
do  not  make  its  construction  firm,  and  the  house  which 
he  has  built  collapse  and  cause  the  death  of  the  owner 
of  the  house,  that  builder  shall  be  put  to  death." 

Surgeons  received  a  good  fee  if  their  patient  recovered, 
but  if  he  died  they  had  to  pay  a  heavy  money  fine  or 
sufl:er  a  severe  corporeal  punishment,  even  to  the  ampu- 
tation of  their  fingers.  The  wages  of  field-laborers, 
shepherds,  artisans,  boatmen,  and  the  like  were  fixed 
by  law,  and  they  were  all  held  responsible  for  any  loss. 

The  epilogue  of  the  code  concludes  as  follows:  "  Let 
any  oppressed  man,  who  has  a  cause,  come  before  my 
image  as  king  of  righteousness!  Let  him  read  the  in- 
scription on  my  monument!  Let  him  give  heed  to  my 
weighty  words!  .  .  .  Let  him  read  the  code  and 
pray  with  a  full  heart  before  Marduk,  my  lord,  and 
Zarpanit,  my  lady;  and  may  the  protecting  deities,  the 
gods  who  enter  K-sagila,  daily  in  the  midst  of  K-sagila 
look  with  favor  on  his  wishes  in  the  presence  of  Marduk, 
my  lord,  and  Zarpanit,  my  lady." 

These  exhortations  make  it  altogether  probable  that 
the  original  column  was  set  up  before  E-sagila,  the  great 
Marduk  temple  in  Babylon.  The  fragments  of  this 
code,  found  in  other  parts  of  the  kingdom,  are  probably 
what  is  now  left  of  copies  of  it. 

Hammurabi,  the  author  of  the  code,  is  identified  by 


Jo  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

many  Assyriologists  with  Amraphel  of  Genesis  xiv. ,  i . 
He  was  the  sixth  king  of  the  first  Babylonian  dynasty, 
and  came  to  the  throne  in  2250  B.C.  In  his  day  the  whole 
of  Babylonia  was  first  united  under  one  sway,  and  ex- 
tended not  only  over  Elam  and  Assyria,  but  as  far  west 
as  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  thus  including  Syria  and 
Palestine.  The  code  which  he  drew  up  is  considered  to 
be  a  compilation  from  a  number  of  earlier  codes.  The 
discovery  of  many  contract  tablets  antedating  his  reign 
abundantly  proves  that  he  made  use  of  laws  and  legal 
phraseology  which  had  become  traditional  in  his  day. 

Before  the  discovery  of  the  code  of  Hammurabi,  the 
oldest  known  collection  of  laws  was  a  portion  of  the 
Old  Testament.  The  ancient  Egyptian  code  referred  to 
by  Diodorus  Siculus  (57  B.C.)  has  never  been  recovered, 
and  the  Hindu  Laws  of  Manu  (c.  950  B.C.)  and  the 
Twelve  Tables  of  Rome  (c.  450  B.C.)  are  confessedly 
younger.  The  Pentateuchal  code  is  now  regarded  as 
a  compilation  made  up  of  earlier  and  later  elements,  the 
oldest  portion  being  the  Book  of  the  Covenant  referred 
to  in  Exodus  xxiv.,  7.  This  Book  of  the  Covenant, 
scholars  tell  us,  is  the  portion  of  the  Old  Testament 
recorded  in  Ex.  xx.,  22-xxiii.,  33. 

Now  when  we  compare  this  civil  and  criminal  code 
with  the  code  of  Hammurabi,  the  likenesses  in  form  of 
statement  and  subject-matter  are  too  numerous  to  admit 
of  the  explanation  that  they  are  purely  accidental.  The 
only  satisfactory  position  is  that  the  earliest  portion  of 
the  Mosaic  code  was  largely  taken  from  the  much  older 
Hammurabic  code. 

'  'When  the  Hebrews  effected  a  settlement  in  Canaan," 
says  Professor  Kellner,  *'they  found  there  a  people 
greatly  their  superior  in  culture;  learning  from  this 
people  the  arts  of  civilization  they  gradually  passed 


The  Sacred  Tablets  of  the  Babylonians    5 1 


from  the  unsettled  life  of  nomad  herdsmen  into  that  of 
settled  agriculturalists.  Their  new  home  had  long  been 
under  Babylonian  influence.  For  centuries,  certainly 
since  the  days  of  Abraham,  which  were  also  the  days  of 
Hammurabi,  the  rule  of  Babylon  had  extended  to  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea;  and  at  the  time  of 
the  Zel-el-Amarna  tablets  (c.  1450  B.C.),  shortly  before 
the  Hebrew  settlement  in  Canaan,  not  only,  as  these  let- 
ters show,  was  there  a  Hvely  intercourse  with  Babylon, 
but  the  Babylonian  language  and  cuneiform  writing 
were  actually  used  throughout  Palestine  in  carrying  on 
international  communication. ' '  The  Hebrews  appropri- 
ated freely  many  Babylonian  legends  concerning  the 
early  history  of  the  world.  Even  their  "  Sabbath,  both 
in  name  and  institution,  was  of  Babylonish  origin." 
Nothing  was  more  natural  for  them  to  do  under  the 
circumstances  than  to  adapt  to  their  own  needs  the 
Babylonian  law  which  had  long  been  in  use  in  Canaan 
before  they  arrived  there. 

It  must  always  be  remembered  that  the  Babylonian 
literature  includes  the  Assyrian.  For  civilization  in 
that  part  of  the  earth  was  first  established  in  Babylonia. 
It  is  claimed  by  some  students  of  recent  discoveries 
made  in  Nippur  that  its  beginning  can  now  be  traced 
back  even  to  5000  or  6000  B.C.  Certain  it  is  that 
religious  thought  and  feehng  had  reached  a  high  degree 
of  development  among  the  Babylonians  many  centuries 
before  the  time  of  Moses  or  David,  and  that  the  religion 
of  the  Jews  was  greatly  affected  by  its  influence.  Fur- 
thermore, it  is  clear  from  the  quotations  cited  above  that 
the  Sacred  Tablets  of  the  Babylonians  did  not  create 
their  religion, but  simply  recorded  what,  for  a  long  time 
before  they  were  written,  had  come  to  be  commonly 
believed, 


52  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

b.    The    Egyptian    Book    of  the    Dead.— The 

chief  monument  of  the  religious  life  of  the  ancient 
Egyptians  is  entitled  the  Book  of  the  Dead.  The 
great  mass  of  the  religious  literature  of  Egypt  is 
written  in  imitation  of  it,  or  is  made  up  of  extracts 
from  its  contents.  In  some  respects  it  is  the  most 
complete  account  of  the  primitive  religious  beliefs  of 
mankind  of  which  w^e  have  any  knowledge. 

No  people,  ancient  or  modern,  have  ever  equalled 
the  ancient  Egyptians  in  the  care  they  bestowed  upon 
their  dead.  It  seems  to  have  been  the  dominating 
purpose  of  their  lives  to  secure  the  happiness  of  their 
deceased  in  the  future  world,  whatever  may  have  been 
their  condition  in  this.  No  one  can  rightly  understand 
their  civilization  unless  it  is  considered  from  this  point 
of  view. 

The  Book  of  the  Dead  was  called  by  the  Egyp- 
tians themselves  the  ' '  Book  of  Coming  Forth  in  the 
Daytime,"  from  the  opening  words  of  the  first  chap- 
ter, which  starts  out  with  a  promise  to  give  to  the 
ka  of  the  deceased  the  power  of  visiting  the  upper 
world. 

According  to  the  opinion  of  that  age  and  people 
every  person  consisted  of  three  parts,  a  mortal  cor- 
ruptible body  called  the  cha^  a  living  soul  or  vital 
principle  to  which  the  term  ba  was  applied,  and  the 
ka,  a  sort  of  spiritual  double  or  protecting  genius, 
which  was  the  inseparable  companion  of  every  in- 
dividual, growing  up  as  he  grew  and  never  forsaking 
him.  At  death  the  ba  was  supposed  to  leave  the  body 
in  the  form  of  a  bird,  which  was  often  represented  with 
the  head  and  arms  of  a  human  being,  and  to  fly  up 
directly  to  the  abode  of  the  gods.  The  ka,  however, 
dwelt  in  the  tomb  with  the  body.     At  any   time  it 


The  Egyptian  Book  of  the  Dead         53 

could  at  will  enter  the  body  and  reanimate  it.  A  small 
passageway  a  few  inches  square  was  frequently  made 
in  the  walls  of  the  tomb  for  the  egress  and  ingress  of 
the  ka.  False  doors  were  sometimes  constructed  for 
its  exclusive  use.  The  personal  existence  of  the  de- 
parted spirit  depended  absolutely  upon  the  preservation 
of  the  body,  which  must  always  be  kept  in  a  suitable 
condition  for  its  spiritual  visitor.  It  must  never  be- 
come "  a  mass  of  worms,"  but  "  remain  as  imperishable 
as  the  flesh  of  the  gods." 

Consequently  the  body  at  death  was  carefully  em- 
balmed as  soon  as  the  ba  had  left  it.  Linen  bandages 
were  wrapped  around  it  and  it  was  placed  in  a  cofiin, 
upon  the  boards  of  which  texts  from  the  Book  of  the 
Dead  were  inscribed,  in  order  that  the  deceased  might 
have  the  use  of  them  in  passing  through  the  perils  of 
the  lower  world.  Frequently  these  texts  were  written 
upon  the  linen  bandages  themselves,  or  put  upon  little 
scrolls,  which  were  rolled  up  and  placed  under  the 
armpits  of  the  mummy,  or  hung  about  its  neck. 

Accompanied  by  the  relatives,  friends,  and  many 
hired  mourners,  if  the  family  were  able  to  afford  them, 
the  body  was  carried  to  the  place  of  burial,  w^hich  was 
always  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Nile  toward  the  setting 
sun.  Here  the  priests  read  extracts  from  the  Book  of 
the  Dead,  burned  incense,  and  made  offerings,  as  they 
committed  the  body  to  the  tomb. 

Since  the  deceased  was  supposed  to  take  with  him 
all  of  the  appetites  and  desires  of  the  body,  abundant 
provision  had  to  be  made  for  all  its  wants.  Alabaster 
figures  of  fowls,  loaves  of  bread,  little  wooden  wine- 
jars,  and  wooden  statuettes  of  cooks  and  bakers  were 
placed  in  the  tomb,  all  of  which  could  be  immediately 
changed  into  real  objects  at  the  option  of  the  deceased, 


54  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

provided  the  right  magical  text  from  the  Book  of  the 
Dead  was  at  hand  for  his  use. 

In  the  same  way  the  deceased  could  take  with  him 
his  favorite  games  and  other  means  of  recreation. 
Actual  voyages  could  be  made  by  him  in  little  imi- 
tation boats  with  miniature  oars  and  rowers.  And, 
above  all,  he  could  avoid  the  necessity  of  labor  in  the 
future  world  if  he  had  with  him  a  number  of  statuettes 
of  laborers  to  answer  for  him  when  any  work  was 
assigned  to  him,  provided  he  was  furnished  with  the 
appropriate  formulas  from  the  Book  of  the  Dead  for 
giving  them  reality.  Texts  from  the  book  were  in- 
scribed upon  the  tomb,  and  visitors  were  adjured  to 
repeat  them  for  the  benefit  of  the  deceased  that  he 
might  have  the  enjoyment  of  "  thousands  of  bread, 
beer,  oxen,  and  geese  "  in  his  place  among  the  gods. 

These  facts  concerning  some  of  the  uses  of  the  Book 
of  the  Dead  among  the  ancient  Egyptians  will  illus- 
trate how  important  the  book  was  in  their  eyes.  But 
before  we  can  understand  in  any  real  way  its  teachings, 
or  duly  appreciate  the  illustrations  of  events  in  the 
lower  world  that  it  contains,  we  must  know  something 
of  the  ideas  concerning  the  gods  that  had  become 
prevalent  at  the  time  the  book  was  written. 

Egyptologists  seem  now  to  be  agreed  that  the  re- 
ligion of  ancient  Egypt  originated  in  a  purely  local 
fetishism,  and  was  not  in  anj'  sense  a  borrowed  product. 
''Every  village  of  prehistoric  times,"  says  a  high 
authority,  "  seems  to  have  had  its  own  god  or  demon, 
worshipped  in  some  object,  usually  a  tree  or  an  ani- 
mal." Out  of  this  chaos  of  deities  it  gradually  came 
about  that  as  some  one  village  grew  into  a  city  and 
acquired  sovereignty  over  neighboring  villages  the  god 
of  that  city  became  the  Great  God,  and  the  other  gods 


The  Egyptian  Book  of  the  Dead         55 

were  brought  into  some  subordinate  relation  to  him  as 
a  member  of  his  household.  In  this  way  every  princi- 
pal deity  came  to  be  surrounded  by  a  circle  of  gods  and 
there  often  resulted  the  formation  of  a  local  Triad  of 
gods  consisting  of  father,  mother,  and  son. 

In  some  localities  in  very  early  times  the  bull  was 
chiefly  worshipped  ;  in  others,  such  animals  as  the 
goat,  the  ram,  the  cat,  the  dog,  the  ibis,  the  beetle, 
and  the  crocodile.  Whatever  animal  or  object  was 
selected,  it  was  regarded  as  the  principal  local  deity. 
As  the  ideas  of  the  people  became  more  refined  and 
spiritual,  some  of  the  gods  took  on  in  part  the  human 
form.  In  general  the  trunk  of  the  human  body  came  to 
be  attributed  to  a  god,  while  he  kept  the  head  of  the 
animal  in  which  he  was  before  incarnated. 

In  this  way  the  extremely  grotesque  forms  which 
are  attributed  to  many  of  the  Egyptian  gods  in  the 
pictures  contained  in  the  Book  of  the  Dead  are  to  be 
accounted  for.  Thus  Ptah,  the  god  of  Memphis,  ap- 
pears as  the  apis-bull ;  Hapi  and  Amon  of  Thebes,  as 
rams;  Anubis  of  Lycopolis,  as  a  jackal-headed  man  ; 
Bast  of  Bubastis,  as  a  cat-headed  woman  ;  Horns  of 
Edfu,  as  a  hawk-headed  man.  Thoth  of  Hermopolis  is 
usually  represented  with  the  trunk  of  a  man  and  the 
head  of  an  ibis.  Osiris  is  the  god  of  Abydos,  the  chief 
burial-place  of  Egypt,  and  the  lord  of  the  lower  world. 
He  was  married  to  Isis  his  sister,  by  whom  he  had  two 
sons,  Horus,  who  was  the  bringer  of  light,  and  Set, 
the  god  of  darkness. 

Before  Osiris  every  person  on  leaving  this  world  was 
summoned  for  judgment.  He  was  assisted  by  forty- 
two  judges  or  ''Assessors,"  one  from  each  of  the  forty- 
two  districts  into  which  Upper  and  I^ower  Egypt  were 
originally  divided.      Osiris  and  these  assessors  decided 


56  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


the  momentous  question  as  to  whether  the  newcomer 
was  fit  to  enter  the  fields  of  Amenti  and  take  up  his 
residence  in  the  abode  of  the  blessed. 

A  very  ancient  papyrus  of  the  Book  of  the  Dead, 
found  recently  in  Thebes  and  now  deposited  in  the 
Royal  Museum  at  Berlin,  contains  among  other  unique 
illustrations  of  the  events  in  the  lower  world  a  very 
striking  representation  of  this  last  judgment.  The 
scene  is  taken  from  the  125th  chapter,  entitled,  "  The 
Weighing  of  the  Heart."  In  the  lower  section  of 
this  picture  the  deceased  is  being  led  into  a  large 
subterranean  hall  by  Mat,  the  goddess  of  truth  and 
justice,  mistress  of  the  nether  world.  At  the  oppo- 
site end  of  what  is  called  in  the  text  "  The  Great  Hall 
of  Truth,"  Osiris  is  seated  on  a  naos  or  throne  ready  to 
hear  the  newcomer.  In  the  middle  of  the  hall  is  a 
large  pair  of  delicately  balanced  scales  in  one  pan  of 
which  hawk-headed  Horus  has  placed  the  heart  of  the 
deceased,  and  in  the  other  jackal-headed  Anubis,  the 
god  of  embalmers,  has  put  a  feather,  the  symbol  of 
truth  and  justice.  On  the  top  of  the  scales  is  seated 
the  dog  Hapi,  the  god  of  measure.  To  the  rear  of 
Anubis  is  ibis-headed  Thoth,  the  scribe  of  the  gods, 
who  stands  with  pen  in  hand  to  register  the  decision. 
Between  Horus  and  Osiris  is  a  female  hippopotamus 
with  the  head  of  a  crocodile  who  stands  ready  to  de- 
vour the  newcomer,  if  he  fails  to  pass  the  required 
ordeal. 

In  the  upper  section  of  the  picture  the  deceased  is  on 
his  knees  addressing  a  prayer  to  the  forty- two  judges, 
who  have  heads  representing  a  great  variety  of  animals 
and  who  carry  in  their  hands  a  feather,  the  symbol  of 
their  office.  They  each  have  to  pass  sentence  upon 
some  particular  sin  as  the  accused  pronounces  before 


The  Egyptian  Book  of  the  Dead         5  7 


them  the  famous  Negative  Confession.  Much  of  the 
matter  in  the  Book  of  the  Dead  is  to  us  meaningless 
jargon.  But  some  extracts  taken  here  and  there  from 
the  petitions  in  the  book  for  the  deceased  to  use  on 
entering  the  judgment  hall  of  Osiris  are  as  follows  : 

*'  Do  not  imprison  my  soul.  Do  not  let  any  hurt  me. 
May  I  sit  down  among  the  principal  gods  in  their 
dwellings  ?  If  you  repel  me  from  the  places  of  regener- 
ation, do  not  let  the  evil  principles  take  hold  of  me. 
Do  not  let  me  be  repelled  from  your  gates  ;  be  not  your 
gates  closed  against  me.  May  I  have  loaves  in  Pu, 
drinks  in  Tepu.  Grant  to  me  the  funeral  food  and 
drinks,  the  oxen,  the  geese,  the  fabrics,  the  incense,  the 
oil,  and  all  the  good  and  pure  things  upon  which  the 
gods  live.  May  I  be  eternally  settled  in  the  transforma- 
tions that  will  please  me.  May  I  be  united  with  the 
gods  of  truth."     (Quoted  from  Warner). 

The  following  are  similar  extracts  from  the  Negative 
Confession  made  before  the  forty-two  assessors  : 

"  I  did  not  bid  any  one  kill  treacherously.  I  did  not 
lie  to  any  man.  I  did  not  plunder  the  supplies  in  the 
temple.  I  did  not  overcharge.  I  did  not  tamper  with 
the  weight  of  the  balance.  I  was  not  a  bully.  I  did 
not  use  too  many  words  in  speaking.  I  did  not  turn  a 
deaf  ear  to  the  words  of  truth.  I  did  not  make  my 
mouth  work.  I  did  not  steal.  I  was  pure,  pure,  pure. 
I  did  not  do  what  the  gods  hate.  I  did  not  cause  the 
slave  to  be  misused  by  his  master.  I  did  not  cause  any 
one  to  be  hungry.  I  did  not  cause  any  one  to  weep. 
I  did  not  commit  adultery.  I  did  not  kill.  I  prevailed 
as  a  man  that  keeps  his  head."  (Quoted  from 
Warner.) 

It  is  admitted  that  in  this  125th  chapter  we  have  one  of 
the  oldest  known  codes  of  private  and  public  morality. 


58  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

John  Newenham  Hoare  in  his  article  on  ' '  The  Religion 
of  the  Ancient  Egyptians"  in  the  Nineteenth  Cefitury 
says  of  it :  *'  That  which  strikes  one  most  in  the  125th 
chapter  is  the  profound  insight  that  every  work  shall  be 
brought  into  judgment,  and  every  secret  thing,  whether 
it  be  good  or  evil.  It  is  the  voice  of  conscience  which 
accuses  or  excuses  in  that  solemn  hour,  for  no  accuser 
appears  in  the  Hall,  the  man's  whole  life  is  seen  by 
himself  in  its  true  light. ' ' 

Besides  the  scenes  of  the  Last  Judgment  and  the 
Negative  Confession,  the  book  abounds  in  speeches  and 
prayers  to  be  addressed  to  the  gods  and  other  beings 
whom  the  departed  will  meet  in  his  various  migrations. 
The  place  into  which  he  is  finally  ushered  is  described 
with  considerable  vagueness,  but  for  the  most  part  it 
resembled  the  region  of  the  Nile.  A  broad  river  flowed 
through  it  which  was  divided  into  numerous  branches. 
Islands  covered  with  fruitful  fields  existed  on  every  side. 
The  justified  had  a  share  in  tilling  the  fields,  and  they 
were  always  rewarded  with  sure  and  abundant  harvests. 

The  Book  of  the  Dead  is  admitted  by  all  scholars  to 
be  a  conglomerate  made  up  of  accretions  during  long 
periods  of  time.  Some  parts  of  it,  they  tell  us,  go  back 
in  all  probability  to  prehistoric  times.  Others  belong 
to  the  era  of  the  pyramids  and  a  few  to  a  much  later 
period  in  Egyptian  history.  Of  the  many  existing 
copies,  "  probably  not  far  short  of  a  thousand,"  some 
contain  only  a  few  chapters,  while  other  rolls  are  over 
a  hundred  feet  in  length  and  about  fifteen  inches  in 
breadth.  There  is  no  connection  between  the  chapters, 
either  from  a  logical  or  chronological  point  of  view,  and 
thousands  of  years  passed  before  the  book  received  any 
very  definite  form.  The  oldest  chapters  are  said  to.be  the 
130th  and  64th.   Of  the  latter,  Naville,  a  famous  student 


The  Egyptian  Book  of  the  Dead  59 


of  these  various  texts,  asserts  that  it  is  "the  most  im- 
portant chapter  of  the  Book  of  the  Dead.' '  The  chapter 
claims  to  have  been  written  by  ''  the  finger  of  the  god 
Thoth,"  "  the  manifester  of  truth  and  righteousness." 
It  says  of  itself :  "  There  is  no  book  like  it,  man  hath 
not  spoken  it,  neither  hath  ear  heard  of  it."  It  is  a 
resume  of  the  whole  Book  of  the  Dead  and  occurs  twice 
on  the  sarcophagus  of  Queen  Mentuhotep  of  the  eleventh 
dynasty.  In  another  copy  the  name  Septi  of  the  first 
dynasty  appears.  Twenty-five  hundred  years  before 
Christ,  authorities  tell  us,  the  text  of  the  chapter  "  was 
nearly  as  doubtful  as  in  later  ages." 

The  seventeenth  chapter  is  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able and  it  has  been  preserved  from  times  previous  to 
the  twelfth  dynasty.  It  contains  an  account  of  the 
Egyptian  cosmogony  as  taught  at  Heliopolis  and  dates, 
says  Davis  in  his  recent  work  on  the  Egyptian  Book  of 
the  Dead,  "  some  2000  years  before  any  probable  date 
of  Moses."  A  text  of  the  book  of  the  twenty-sixth 
dynasty,  republished  by  Lepsius  in  his  Totenbuch,  con- 
tains 165  chapters.  Some  recent  editions  have  178  chap- 
ters. Occasionally  a  chapter  is  repeated.  The  65tli 
chapter  is  a  duplicate  of  the  2d,  and  the  129th  is  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  1 00th  . 

The  Turin  Papyrus  of  the  Book  of  the  Dead  closes 
with  these  words  :  "He  shall  drink  out  of  the  stream 
of  the  celestial  river,  and  shall  be  resplendent  like  the 
stars  in  Heaven." 

The  Burton  copy  of  the  book  adds  the  following: 
*'  An  adoration  made  to  Osiris,  the  Dweller  of  the  West, 
Great  God,  I.ord  of  Abydos,  Eternal  King,  Everlasting 
I,ord,  Great  God  in  the  plains,— I  give  glory  to  thee, 
O  Osiris,  Lord  of  the  Gods,  living  in  truth!  Is  said  by 
thy  son  Horus.     I  have  come  to  thee,  bringing  thee 


6o  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

truth.  Where  are  thy  attendant  gods  ?  Grant  me  to 
be  with  them  in  thy  company.  I  overthrew  thy  enemies. 
I  have  prepared  thy  food  on  earth  forever. ' ' 

The  religion  of  these  ancient  Egyptians  long  ago 
passed  from  off  the  earth,  but  it  is  the  opinion  of  schol- 
ars that  the  religion  of  the  Jews  was  affected  in  no  small 
degree  by  its  influence.  The  rite  of  circumcision 
which  the  Jews  made  so  much  of  they  acquired 
from  the  Egyptians,  who  in  turn  received  it  from 
the  natives  of  Africa.  Ancient  Egyptian  mummies 
show  that  the  rite  was  practised  far  earlier  than  the  time 
of  Abraham.  The  figure  of  the  cherubim  who  guarded 
the  gates  of  Paradise  and  spread  their  wings  over  the  ark 
was  probably  derived  from  that  of  the  Sphinx  who,  as 
the  symbol  of  wisdom  and  strength,  watched  over  the 
entrances  to  temples  and  tombs.  So  the  Jewish  idea  of  a 
Holy  of  Holies  in  their  temple  was  probably  of  Egyp- 
tian origin,  as  was  the  notion  of  a  scapegoat  to  carry 
away  the  sins  of  the  people.  Although  the  first  two  of 
the  ten  commandments  are  opposed  to  some  of  the 
ideas  implied  in  the  Negative  Confession,  the  majority 
of  them  are  explicitly  contained  in  it.  But  the  leading 
doctrines  of  the  Egyptians  the  Jews  seem  to  have  care- 
fully excluded,  probably  to  a  large-  extent  out  of  preju- 
dice against  the  religion  of  their  oppressors.  We  find 
no  evidence  in  the  Pentateuch  that  the  people  were 
taught  anything  concerning  the  transmigration  of  the 
soul,  theembalmingof  the  body,  or  the  ornamentation 
of  tombs.  But  what  is  more  surprising  we  find  no 
mention  in  it  of  a  future  life  and  a  judgment  to  come. 
It  is  the  emphasis  put  upon  this  idea  that  constitutes 
the  chief  contribution  of  the  Egyptians  to  the  cause 
'^i  religion  in  our  day. 

c.  The  Vedas  of  the  Hindus.— The   word  Veda 


The  Vedas  of  the  Hindus  6 1 

comes  from  the  Sanskrit  vid  (lyatin,  videre)  and  means 
knowledge  or  science.  In  its  broadest  signification  it 
designates  the  entire  sacred  literature  of  ancient  India, 
which  consists  of  more  than  one  hundred  volumes  ; 
but  in  the  narrower  sense  of  the  term  as  here  used  it  re- 
fers to  the  three  metrical  compositions  which  lie  at  the 
basis  of  this  literature  and  determine  its  form  and 
character. 

Expert  students  of  Sanskrit  literature,  such  as  Max 
Miiller,  Whitney,  and  Lanman,  tell  us  that  these  com- 
positions are  among  the  oldest  Scriptures  that  have 
come  down  to  us.  The  Hindus  have  always  believed, 
and  believe  to-day,  that  no  human  authors  produced 
them,  but  that  they  have  existed  from  all  eternity,  and 
cannot  possibly  be  modified  or  destroyed.  The  mean- 
ing of  these  Scriptures,  it  is  claimed,  can  be  discerned 
only  by  certain  ' '  Rishis ' '  or  seers  to  whom  from  age 
to  age  it  is  miraculously  revealed. 

It  is  universally  admitted  by  modem  scholars  that 
the  original  Vedas  were  very  much  larger  than  the 
present  collection  and  were  handed  down  by  tradition 
orally  from  generation  to  generation  long  before  they 
were  put  into  written  form.  Remnants  of^  older  Vedas 
not  now  extant  are  scattered  through  various  portions 
of  the  present  collection  in  a  manner  similar  to  the 
references  to  older  writings  in  our  own  Bible. 

The  Vedas  are  chiefly  made  up  of  prayers  and  hymns 
addressed  to  the  personified  forces  of  nature,  and  are  di- 
vided into  three  principal  parts, — the  Rig-Veda,  or 
hymns  to  be  recited,  the  Sama-Veda,  or  hymns  to  be 
sung,  and  the  Yagur-Veda,  largely  a  collection  of  sac- 
rificial formulas  and  rites.  To  each  of  these  is  attached 
a  body  of  subordinate  works  called  Brahmanas  which 
are  for  the  most  part  explanatory  discourses  on  the 


62  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

sacred  text  by  a  brahman  or  priest.  The  older  Brahm- 
anas  contain  descriptions  of  the  sacrificial  ceremonies, 
an  account  of  their  origin,  and  legends  illustrating  their 
supernatural  power.  The  later  Brahmanas  are  more 
philosophical  in  their  character.  They  ignore  such 
matters  as  rites  and  ceremonies,  and  deal  with  the  mys- 
teries of  creation  and  existence.  They  are  often  spoken 
of  under  the  term  Upanishads  and  remain  the  founda- 
tion of  all  the  higher  thought  of  Brahmanism  even  in 
our  own  day. 

Attached  to  the  Brahmanas,  just  as  the  Brahmanas 
are  attached  to  the  Vedas,  are  the  Sutras.  They  con- 
sist mainly  of  rules  to  be  followed  in  making  sacrifices 
and  conducting  the  affairs  of  every-day  life.  When  the 
ceremonials  had  grown  to  such  enormous  proportions 
that  no  person  could  remember  them,  systematic  treat- 
ises had  to  be  prepared  for  the  celebrants.  For  the 
ceremonials  pertained  not  only  to  the  details  of  the 
present  life  of  an  Aryan  Hindu,  but  to  his  prenatal  and 
postmortem  existence.  The  word  Sutra  means  a  String 
and  refers  to  the  fact  that  these  rules  were  usually  writ- 
ten out  separately  with  great  care  on  dried  palm-leaves 
tied  together  with  a  string.  Bach  Sutra  or  string  ol 
aphorisms  generally  begins  with  the  words,  * '  Thus 
have  I  heard,"  corresponding  to  our  **  Thus  saith  the 
Ivord." 

The  oldest  of  the  Vedas  and  much  the  most  important 
is  the  Rig- Veda.  Its  size  is  nearly  that  of  the  Iliad  and 
Odyssey  of  Homer.  It  consists  of  a  little  over  looo 
prayers  and  hymns  addressed  to  the  fire-god  Agni  and 
various  other  deities,  and  is  divided  into  ten  books.  Six 
of  the  books  are  called  "  Family  Books  "  and  they  form 
the  nucleus  of  the  collection.  Each  contains  the 
hymns  ascribed  to  a  single  family  or  clan  in  which  they 


The  Vedas  of  the  Hindus  63 

originated  and  by  whom  they  were  handed  down  as 
a  sacred  inheritance. 

The  hymns  of  book  nine  are  addressed  to  the  deified 
drink  Soma,  now  believed  to  be  the  juice  of  a  plant  of 
the  milkweed  family,  which  was  supposed  to  confer 
upon  its  devotees  supernatural  powers.  The  tenth 
book  comprises  hymns  ascribed  to  many  different  au- 
thors whom  the  scholars  of  to-day  regard  as  the  poet- 
sages  of  remote  times.  "The  oldest  hymns,"  says 
Professor  I^anman,  "may  have  originated  as  early  as 
1200  or  1500  B.  c,  but  it  is  not  feasible  to  assign  a 
precise  date."  Some  of  the  hymns  are  put  as  late  as 
goo  or  800  B.  c.  It  is  now  well  ascertained  that  in- 
stead of  having  been  given  at  any  one  time  the  collec- 
tion grew  up  graduall}^  during  many  centuries. 

The  first  of  the  hymns  of  the  Rig- Veda,  as  we  now 
have  it,  reads  as  follows  {Sacred  Books  of  the  East^ 
vol.  xlvi.,  p.  i): 

"  I.  I  magnify  Agni,  the  Purohita,  the  divine  ministrant  of  the 
sacrifice,  the  Hotri  priest,  the  greatest  bestower  of 
treasures. 

2.  Agni,  worthy  to  be  magnified  hy  the  ancient  Rishis  and  by 

the  present  ones — may  he  conduct  the  gods  hither. 

3.  May  one  obtain  through  Agni  wealth  and  welfare  day  by 

day,  which  may  bring  glory  and  high  bliss  of  valiant 
offspring. 

4.  Agni,  whatever  sacrifices  and  worship  thou  encompassest 

on  every  side,  that  indeed  goes  to  the  gods. 

5.  May  Agni,  the  thoughtful  Hotri,  he  who  is  true  and  most 

splendidly  renowned,  may  the  god  come  hither  with 
the  gods. 

6.  Whatever  good  thou  wilt  do  to  thy  worshipper,  O  Agni, 

that  work  verily  is  thine,  O  Angiras. 


64  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

7.  Thee,  O  Agni,  we  approach  day  by  day,  O  god  who  shinest 

in  the  darkness  ;  with  our  prayer  bringing  adoration 
to  thee. 

8.  Who  art  the  king  of  all  worship,  the  guardian  of  Rita,  the 

shining  one,  increasing  in  thy  own  house. 

9.  Thus,  O  Agni,  be  easy  of  access  to  us,  as  a  father  is  to  his 

son.     Stay  with  us  for  our  happiness." 

The  word  Brahma  means  growth  or  expansion  and  is 
used  in  the  Vedas  to  designate  the  supreme,  impersonal, 
inactive,  all-pervading  soul  of  the  universe,  from  which 
all  things  emanate  and  to  which  they  all  return. 
Brahma  receives  no  worship,  but  can  be  made  an 
object  of  abstract  meditation.  By  this  means  only  can 
absorption  in  it  be  attained.  Brahma  when  dominated 
by  activity  becomes  Brahma,  the  lord  and  father  of  all 
creatures,  and  together  with  Vishnu,  the  Preserver  or 
Saviour,  and  Siva,  the  Destroyer,  constitutes  the  Hindu 
Trinity.  The  Vedas  also  recognize  the  existence  of 
a  large  number  of  lesser  deities  in  connection  with 
which  a  vast  system  of  ritualism  and  theosophic  specu- 
lation has  grown  up. 

According  to  the  Vedic  teaching  no  real  self  can  ex- 
ist apart  from  the  one  self-existent  supreme  self  When 
individual  spirits  are  allowed  for  a  time  to  take  on  an 
apparent  separate  existence  their  sole  end  and  aim 
should  be  to  annihilate  the  apparent  self  by  reabsorp- 
tion  into  the  one  only  supreme  self.  Intimately  con- 
nected with  this  doctrine  in  the  Vedas  is  the  doctrine 
of  metempsychosis,  or  the  transmigration  of  souls. 
Every  creature  is  supposed  to  be  born  again  and  again 
into  any  one  of  the  various  forms  of  existence  between 
the  one  supreme  self  and  the  lowest  atom  of  living 
matter  before  he  accomplishes  his  annihilation  as  an 
individual  by  union  with  the  Brahma.     The  reason  as- 


The  Vedas  of  the  Hi7idus  65 

signed  for  these  rebirths  is  the  desire  for  life,  or  in- 
dividual existence.  Only  when  this  desire  is  utterly 
eradicated  will  they  cease. 

Associated  with  the  three  Vedas  already  mentioned 
was  the  Atharva-Veda,  called  after  a  semi-mythical 
family  of  priests.  Its  contents  were  popular  and  su- 
perstitious rather  than  hieratic,  and  the  work  is  of  a 
later  date  than  the  other  Vedas.  "It  exhibits  the 
ordinary  Hindu  not  only  in  the  aspect  of  a  devout  and 
virtuous  adherent  of  the  gods,  and  performer  of  pious 
practices,  but  also  as  the  natural,  semi-civilized  man  : 
rapacious,  demon-plagued,  and  fear-ridden,  hateful, 
lustful,  and  addicted  to  sorcery." 

Some  of  the  later  Brahmanas  connected  with  the 
Vedas  are  called  "  Forest  Treatises."  They  are  prob- 
ably so  named  because  of  the  supposed  superior  mysti- 
cal sanctity  of  their  contents,  and  because  they  were 
to  be  recited  in  the  solitude  of  the  forest  instead  of  in 
the  village.  Among  the  later  Sutras  were  the  so-called 
' '  House  Books  ' '  and  the  ' '  Law  Sutras. ' '  The  former 
treated  of  matters  that  concerned  the  every-day  life  of 
the  family,  while  the  latter  dealt  with  the  whole  subject 
of  religious  and  secular  law. 

The  most  famous  of  these  Law-Books  was  called  the 
Code  of  Manu.  As  we  now  have  it,  it  consists  of 
twelve  books,  the  first  treating  of  the  origin  of  the 
universe  and  the  last  of  transmigration  and  final  hap- 
piness. Everything  that  pertains  to  the  duties  of  a 
Brahman  in  the  different  stages  of  his  life  is  set  forth  in 
it,— his  education  and  duties  as  a  pupil,  his  marriage 
and  duties  as  a  householder,  his  means  of  subsistence, 
his  duties  as  an  anchorite  and  ascetic,  the  duties  of 
rulers,  the  mutual  relations  of  the  castes,  penance  and 
expiation. 
5 


66  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

The  code  is  claimed  by  the  Hindus  to  be  the  work  of 
a  divinely  inspired  lawgiver  by  the  name  of  Mann,  who 
is  represented  in  the  Rig- Veda  as  the  ancestor  of  the 
human  race  and  the  first  one  to  ofier  a  sacrifice  to  the 
gods.  In  the  first  chapter  of  the  code  he  declares  him- 
self to  have  created  all  this  universe.  The  chapter 
opens  as  follows  {Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vol.  xxv., 
pp.  I  seqY 

"  I.  The  great  sages  approached  Manu,  who  was 
seated  with  a  collected  mind,  and,  having  duly  wor- 
shipped him,  spoke  as  follows  : 

2.  '  Deign,  divine  one,  to  declare  to  us  precisely 
and  in  due  order  the  sacred  laws  of  each  of  the  (four 
chief)  castes  and  of  the  intermediate  ones. 

3.  '  For  thou,  O  Lord,  alone  knowest  the  import 
(2.  e.  the  rites),  and  the  knowledge  of  the  soul,  taught 
in  this  whole  ordinance  of  the  Self-existent,  which  is 
unknowable  and  unfathomable.' 

4.  He,  whose  power  is  measureless,  being  thus 
asked  by  the  high-minded  sages,  duly  honored  them, 
and  answered,  '  Listen  ! 

5.  '  This  universe  existed  in  the  shape  of  Dark- 
ness, unperceived,  destitute  of  distinctive  marks,  un- 
attainable by  reasoning,  unknowable,  wholly  immersed, 
as  it  were,  in  deep  sleep. 

6.  '  Then  the  divine  Self-existent,  himself  indis- 
cernible, but  making  all  this,  the  great  elements  and 
all  the  rest,  discernible,  appeared  with  irresistible 
creative  power,  dispelling  the  darkness. 

7.  '  He,  who  can  be  perceived  by  the  internal 
organ  alone,  who  is  subtile,  indiscernible,  and  eternal, 
who  contains  all  created  beings  and  is  inconceivable, 
shone  forth  of  his  own  will. 

8.  '  He,  desiring  to  produce  beings  of  many  kinds 


The  Vedas  of  the  Hindtts  67 


from  his  own  body,  first  with  a  thought  created  the 
waters  and  placed  his  seed  in  them. 

9.  '  That  seed  became  a  golden  ^z%,  in  brilliancy 
equal  to  the  sun  ;  in  that  ^zz  he  himself  was  born  as 
Brahman,  the  progenitor  of  the  whole  world.'  " 

The  word  Manu  is  from  the  Sanskrit  man,  mean- 
ing literally  ' '  the  thinking  being. "  It  is  the  consensus 
of  opinion  among  scholars  that  the  word  does  not  refer 
to  any  historical  personage,  and  that  the  code  is  simply 
a  collection  of  the  ordinances  and  customs  of  the  coun- 
try as  they  gradually  developed  in  the  course  of  a  long 
period  of  time.  It  is  also  admitted  that  the  code,  as 
we  now  have  it,  instead  of  being  hoary  with  antiquity, 
should  not  be  placed  farther  back  than  the  beginning 
of  the  Christian  era. 

There  are  several  schools  of  philosophy  that  have 
arisen  among  the  Hindus  to  explain  and  supplement 
the  Vedas.  The  Vedanists  hold  that  there  is  only  one 
being  in  the  universe,  namely,  Brahma,  and  that  all 
else  is  Mayar  or  illusion.  The  Sankhyists  believe  in 
two  eternal  substances,  individual  Souls  and  Nature, 
or  Brahma;  while  the  Nyayists  assume  three,— 
Atoms,  Souls,  and  Brahma.  The  system  whose  fol- 
lowers are  regarded  as  the  highest  representatives  of 
the  teachings  of  the  Vedas  is  a  modification  of  the 
Sankhya,  known  as  the  Yoga  system. 

Yoga  means  "concentration,"  and  a  Yogi  is  one 
who  has  so  disciplined  himself  by  a  systematic  course 
of  self-castigation  that  he  has  brought  about  a  separa- 
tion of  his  soul  from  matter  and  effected  its  absorption 
into  the  divine  soul.  In  the  attaining  of  this  end,  eight 
stages  are  necessary  :  (i)  Self-control.  This  consists 
in  doing  no  injury  to  any  living  thing,  telling  the 
truth,  practising  chastity,  accepting  no  gifts.     (2)    Re- 


68  The  Sphere  of  Religioii 


ligious  observance.     Internal  as  well  as  external  purity 
must  be   observed.     One   must   frequently  repeat  the 
Vedic  hymns,  must  be  contented  with  his  lot,  and  must 
constantly  rely  upon  the  Supreme  Being.     (3)  Fixed 
bodily  postures.     These  are  of  various   sorts.     They 
cultivate  patient  endurance  and  develop  the  will.     (4) 
Regulation  of  the  breath.     This  had  to  do  with  the 
prolongation  of  the  period  of  exhalation  and  inhalation. 
It  was  often  carried  to  a  complete  suspension  of  the 
breathing  process.     (5)    Restraint  of  the  senses.     This 
means    their   diversion   from   the   objects  that  excite 
them.     (6)    The  steadying  of  the  mind  ;  /.  e.,  the  free- 
ing of  it  from  every  sensual  disturbance.     This  is  done 
by  fixing  the  thoughts  exclusively  upon  some  one  part 
of  the  body,  as  the  navel,  or  the  tip  of  the  nose.    (7) 
Meditation.      By  this  is  meant  such  a  concentration  of 
the  attention  upon  the  one  object  of  thought,  the  Su- 
preme Being,  as  to  exclude  all  other  thoughts.     (8) 
Profound  contemplation.     This  involves  such  a  com- 
plete  concentration   of  the   mind  upon  the  Supreme 
Being  as  to  produce  an  utter  extinction  of  all  thought. 
"  In  such  a  state  a  Yogi  is  insensible  to  heat   and 
cold,  to  pleasure  and  pain ;  he  is  the  same  in  prosperity 
and  adversity;  he  enjoys  an  ecstatic  condition."     He 
finds  himself  able  to  know  the  past  and  future,  to  un- 
derstand the  sounds  of  all  animals,  to  tell  the  thoughts 
of  others,  to  recall  his  experiences  in  his  former  state  of 
existence,  to  see  all  objects  at  once  in  this  and  other 
planets. 

In  particular,  a  Yogi,  by  passing  through  these 
eight  stages  of  discipline,  is  supposed  to  acquire  eight 
miraculous  powers,— to  make  himself  invisible  ;  infi- 
nitely light  or  heavy  ;  extremely  small  or  large  ;  to 
touch  anything,  however  distant,  as  the  sun  or  moon, 


The  Vedas  of  the  Hindus  69 


with  the  tips  of  his  fingers  ;  to  have  an  irresistible  will ; 
to  obtain  absolute  dominion  over  all  other  beings  ;  to 
change  the  course  of  nature;  and  to  transport  himself 
to  any  place  whatsoever  at  will. 

By  the  practice  of  Yoga  not  only  does  he  put  himself 
in  possession  of  these  miraculous  powers,  but  he  also 
obtains  "redeeming  knowledge."  When  his  concen- 
tration has  become  so  intense  that  it  has  overcome  all 
the  hindrances  that  arise  from  his  natural  disposition 
and  it  is  no  longer  possible  for  his  thoughts  to  wander, 
his  intellect  is  freed  from  all  consideration  of  self  and 
turns  itself  inward.  This  is  the  beginning  of  true 
liberation.  Salvation,  or  final  liberation,  can  rarely 
come,  however,  until  after  a  succession  of  births.  For 
the  results  obtained  in  one  birth  require  a  subsequent 
birth  in  order  to  reach  their  maturity. 

At  the  outset  Yoga  was  not  theistic.  It  was  only  in 
the  course  of  centuries  that  the  idea  grew  up  that  union 
with  God,  in  any  sense  of  that  term,  was  the  end  to  be 
attained  by  the  system.  Yoga  originally  was  simply 
the  attempt  to  separate  the  spirit  from  matter.  There 
are  a  large  number  of  Upanishads  that  treat  of  Yoga, 
but  scholars  are  agreed  that  they  are  not  among  the 
oldest,  and  many  think  that  they  are  even  more  recent 
than  the  Yoga-sutra  itself. 

All  the  Vedas  agree  in  considering  existence  in  time 
and  space  an  evil.  It  is  a  delusion  resulting  from 
desire  and  necessitates  perpetual  suffering  and  a  per- 
petual transmigration  through  different  bodies,  until 
desire  burns  itself  out  and  ceases  to  be.  Knowledge  of 
this  fact  is  the  only  thing  that  will  bring  deliverance. 
"  He  who  ceases  to  contemplate  other  things,  who 
retires  into  solitude,  annihilates  his  desires,  and  sub- 
jects his  passions,  he  understands  that  Spirit  is  the  one 


^o  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

and  the  Eternal.  The  wise  man  annihilates  all  sensible 
things  in  spiritual  things,  and  contemplates  that  one 
Spirit  who  resembles  pure  space."  All  action  leads  to 
agitation  and  suffering.  Only  knowledge,  pure  con- 
templation, can  unite  the  soul  to  God  and  bring  rest 
and  peace. 

The  Vedas  teach  the  great  truth  of  the  reality  of  spirit, 
and  this  will  always  remain  the  fundamental  doctrine  of 
religion.  But  in  holding  that  spirit  is  absolutely  un- 
limited and  that  eternity  alone  is  real,  they  make  per- 
sonality, whether  of  God  or  man,  impossible  and  leave 
no  room  for  progress  which  must  take  place  in  time. 
The  great  ideas  of  Brahmanism  need  to  be  supplemented 
and  corrected  by  the  idea  that  the  universe  is  the  pro- 
duct of  a  power  acting  according  to  a  rational  purpose, 
and  that .  communion  with  this  power  comes  not  by 
absorption  and  inaction,  but  by  the  active  obedience  of 
the  will  and  by  personal  development.  Thus  only  will 
the  devotees  of  this  religion  cease  from  being  the  slaves 
of  unscrupulous  tyrants,  as  they  have  been  for  centuries, 
and  rise  to  the  dignity  of  men.  What  they  most  need 
is  not  more  intellectual  ability,  but  more  moral  power. 

The  Brahman  ical  priests  have  for  many  centuries  held 
in  their  control  the  exclusive  knowledge  of  the  rites  and 
ceremonies  enjoined  by  the  Vedas,  and  in  this  way  have 
exerted  an  influence  over  the  daily  lives  of  the  people 
unequalled  in  any  other  land.  The  caste  system  which 
they  have  instituted  has  for  generations  been  by  far  the 
most  significant  factor  in  Hindu  life. 

The  census  of  190 1  gave  the  number  of  Brahmanical 
Hindus  as  over  200,000,000.  The  mass  of  them,  while 
not  ignoring  the  worship  of  their  gods,  regard  it  as  the 
highest  law  of  their  being  to  eat  correctly,  to  drink  cor- 
rectly, and  to  marry  correctly,  that  is,  in  accordance 


The  Chinese  Classics  71 


with  the  law  of  their  caste.  They  believe  that  in  this 
way  the  teachings  of  the  Vedas  are  most  faithfully 
observed  and  honored. 

d.  The  Chinese  Classics.— The  bible  which  from 
the  sixth  century  before  Christ  has  had  a  controlling 
influence  over  the  destinies  of  the  Chinese  and  still  em- 
bodies the  faith  and  practice  of  their  ruling  classes  is 
made  up  of  nine  books,  known  to  us  as  the  Chinese 
Classics.  The  first  five  of  these  books  Confucius  pro- 
fessed merely  to  have  abridged  from  older  books,  and 
the  remaining  four  were  composed  partly  by  him  and 
partly  by  his  disciples. 

It  is  now  agreed  that  Confucius  did  not  commit  any 
of  his  own  teachings  to  writing.  Yet  so  carefully  did 
his  followers  preserve  his  sayings  and  so  fully  did  they 
depict  his  life  that  there  is  probably  no  person  of  an- 
tiquity of  whom  we  have  more  accurate  knowledge. 
He  was  born  on  the  19th  of  June,  551  B.C.,  atShang-ping 
in  the  little  kingdom  of  Lu.  Various  miracles  are  re- 
lated as  occurring  in  connection  with  his  birth  and  early 
childhood.  His  father  died  when  he  was  three  years 
old,  but  he  was  carefully  brought  up  by  his  mother,  who 
called  him  by  a  pet  name  meaning  'kittle  hillock" 
because  of  an  unusual  elevation  on  the  top  of  his 
forehead.  His  real  name  was  Kong,  but  his  disciples 
called  him  Kong-fu-tsu,  or  Kong,  the  Master,  which  the 
Jesuit  missionaries  Latinized  into  Confucius. 

From  his  early  years  Confucius  showed  an  extraor- 
dinary love  of  learning  and  a  great  veneration  for  the 
ancient  laws  of  his  country.  At  seventeen  he  obtained 
an  office  under  the  government  which  he  administered 
with  unusual  energy  and  uprightness.  At  nineteen  he 
married,  but  after  four  years  he  gave  up  his  family  life 
for  the  sake  of  his  public  duties.    When  in  his  twenty- 


72  The  sphere  of  Religion 

third  year  his  mother  died,  and  in  accordance  with  a 
law  then  long  antiquated,  that  children  should  resign  all 
public  office  on  the  death  of  either  parent,  he  gave  up 
his  official  position;  and  in  accordance  with  another  an- 
tiquated law  buried  the  remains  of  his  mother  with  such 
solemnity  and  splendor  that  his  contemporaries  resolved 
henceforth  to  pay  their  dead  similar  ancient  honors. 

The  authority  of  Confucius  concerning  the  past  soon 
became  unquestioned.  He  pointed  out  the  necessity  of 
paying  stated  homage  to  the  dead,  either  at  the  grave 
or  in  a  part  of  the  dwelling  consecrated  to  the  purpose. 
Hence  ' '  the  hall  of  ancestors ' '  and  the  anniversary 
feasts  in  honor  of  the  dead  in  every  well-regulated 
Chinese  household  of  our  day.  Confucius  spent  three 
years  in  mourning  and  solitude,  giving  himself  up  ex- 
clusively to  study  and  meditation.  Then  he  began  to 
instruct  his  countrymen  in  what  he  considered  the 
principles  of  correct  living,  being  himself  the  embodi- 
ment of  all  the  virtues  he  inculcated  on  others.  He 
gave  instruction  to  all  who  came  to  him,  however  small 
the  fee,  provided  he  found  in  them  capacity  to  learn  and 
zeal  for  improvement. 

His  fame  soon  spread  abroad  and  before  many  years 
he  had  no  less  than  3000  followers.  They  were  mostly 
mandarins  of  middle  age,  sober  and  grave,  occupy- 
ing official  positions  of  importance  and  respectability. 
This,  in  some  degree  at  least,  accounts  for  the  fact  that 
his  teachings  were  so  decidedly  ethical.  They  were 
primarily  intended  to  fit  men  for  honorable  and  useful 
careers  in  this  life.  The  political  disorders  of  his  time, 
which  the  emperor  was  too  weak  to  quell,  naturally 
turned  his  attention  to  the  principles  of  good  govern- 
ment as  his  chief  topic  of  discourse. 

Confucius  travelled  much  through  various  parts  of 


The  Chinese  Classics  73 


China  and  in  some  of  them  he  was  employed  as  a  pub- 
He  reformer.  In  his  fifty-first  year  he  returned  to  I^u 
and  was  appointed  "  governor  of  the  people,"  but,  ow- 
ing to  the  jealousy  and  intrigue  of  neighboring  states 
at  his  success,  he  soon  resigned  and  betook  himself  to 
other  countries.  After  thirteen  years  of  fruitless  effort 
to  find  some  ruler  willing  to  be  guided  by  his  counsels, 
he  came  back  to  Lu  in  extreme  poverty  and  spent  his 
remaining  years  in  literary  pursuits.  His  last  days 
were  greatly  saddened  by  the  death  of  his  only  son  and 
two  of  his  most  faithful  disciples.  He  died  a  disap- 
pointed man  at  the  non-success  of  his  mission,  in  his 
seventieth  year,  but  immediately,  as  in  the  case  of 
Buddha,  his  name  began  to  be  treated  with  marked 
veneration,  and  to-day  he  is  worshipped  by  many  as  a 
god. 

His  family  still  continues  to  reside  in  the  place  where 
their  ancestor  lived  and  is  the  only  hereditary  aris- 
tocracy in  China,  the  oldest  representative  of  it  having 
the  title  and  revenues  of  a  duke.  Temples  to  the  honor 
of  Confucius  exist  in  every  city  of  the  empire,  and 
now  exceed  1500  in  numbers.  Twice  each  year  some 
70,000  animals  and  27,000  pieces  of  silk  are  burned 
upon  his  altars.  Twice  each  year  the  Emperor  himself 
makes  offerings  in  his  honor  in  the  hall  of  the  Imperial 
College  at  Peking.  The  eighteenth  day  of  the  second 
moon  is  kept  sacred  as  the  anniversary  of  his  death. 

The  system  of  Confucius,  as  set  forth  in  the  nine 
classics,  has  little  to  do  with  what  is  ordinarily  called 
religion,  and  he  distinctly  disclaims  for  himself  any 
special  revelation.  "  I  teach  you  nothing,"  he  says, 
"but  what  you  might  learn  for  yourselves— viz. ,  the 
observation  of  the  three  fundamental  laws  of  relation 
between  sovereign  and  subject,  father  and  child,  hus- 


74  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

band  and  wife  ;  and  the  five  capital  virtues— universal 
charity,  impartial  justice,  conformity  to  ceremonies 
and  established  usages,  rectitude  of  heart  and  mind, 
and  pure  sincerity." 

One  of  his  disciples  once  asked  him  about  serving 
the  spirits  of  the  dead  and  the  master  replied  :  ' '  While 
you  are  not  able  to  serve  men,  how  can  you  serve  their 
spirits?"  and  when  asked  a  question  about  death,  he 
answered  :  ' '  While  you  do  not  know  life,  how  can  you 
know  about  death  ?  ' ' 

Although  Confucius  lauds  the  present  world  there 
are  a  number  of  allusions  in  his  works  to  an  heavenly 
agency  called  Shang-te  whose  outer  emblem  is  Tien  or 
the  visible  firmament.  This  Shang-te  is  probably  the 
ever-present  Law  and  Order  of  the  universe.  In  one 
passage  he  enjoins  the  people  *'  to  contribute  with  all 
their  power  to  the  worship  of  Shang-te,  of  celebrated 
mountains,  of  great  rivers,  and  of  the  *  shin '  (spirits) 
of  the  four  quarters."  In  another  he  says:  *' as  for 
the  genii  and  spirits,  sacrifice  to  them  ;  I  have  nothing 
to  tell  regarding  them  whether  they  exist  or  not ;  but 
their  worship  is  part  of  an  august  and  awful  ceremonial, 
which  a  wise  man  will  not  neglect  or  despise." 

In  the  opinion  of  many  competent  students  of  Chi- 
nese history  it  was  this  doubting  attitude  of  Confucius 
toward  the  world  of  spirits  that  prevented  his  disciples 
from  giving  themselves  up  to  the  debasing  superstitions 
and  magical  rites  of  the  Buddhist  and  Taoist  sects  that 
still  demoralize  the  masses  of  the  people. 

The  first  of  the  so-called  "  Five  Canonical  Books  "  of 
the  Chinese  was  originally  a  cosmological  essay,  but  is 
now  regarded  as  a  treatise  on  ethics.  The  second  is  an 
account  of  the  sayings  and  actions  of  two  emperors 
who  lived  twenty-three  centuries    B.C.,  and  of  other 


The  Chinese  Classics  ^t 


ancients  for  whom  Confucius  had  the  deepest  rever- 
ence. It  depicts  a  kind  of  golden  age  when  evil,  pov- 
erty, and  ignorance  had  been  blotted  out  of  the  empire 
by  the  virtue  and  example  of  its  rulers,  when  '  *  the 
upright  were  advanced  to  ofl&ce  and  the  crooked  set 
aside."  The  third  is  a  book  of  sacred  songs  or  poems, 
three  hundred  and  eleven  in  number,  many  of  which 
every  well-educated  Chinaman  knows  by  heart.  The 
fourth  is  called  the  '*  Book  of  Rites  "  and  prescribes  the 
ceremonies  to  be  observed  in  every  relation  of  life.  It 
has  been  for  centuries,  and  is  now,  the  chief  cause  of 
the  artificial  and  unchangeable  habits  of  the  people. 
And  the  last  of  the  five  has  the  title,  the  ' '  Spring  and 
Autumn  Annals."  In  it  Confucius  gives  a  brief  his- 
tory of  the  events  in  I^u  from  721  to  480  B.C.  It  is 
not  a  work  of  much  merit. 

The  first  of  the  so-called  "  Four  Books  "  which  fol- 
low these  five  canonical  books  is  the  Chinese  bible.  It 
is  known  as  the  ''Great  Study,"  and  is  devoted  to 
showing  in  what  good  government  consists.  It  says, 
''  The  ancients  who  desired  to  illustrate  illustrious 
virtue  throughout  the  empire  first  ordered  well  their 
own  states.  Wishing  to  order  well  their  own  states, 
they  first  regulated  their  families.  Wishing  to  regu- 
late their  families,  they  first  cultivated  their  own 
persons.  Wishing  to  cultivate  their  persons,  they  first 
rectified  their  hearts."  The  second  is  entitled  "The 
Doctrine  of  the  Mean,"  and  is  attributed  to  the  grand- 
son of  Confucius.  It  teaches  what  *  *  the  due  medium  ' ' 
is  in  all  conduct.  The  third  book  is  sometimes  called 
the  "  Memorabiha  of  Confucius,"  and  is  the  chief 
source  of  our  knowledge  of  his  character  and  teachings. 
Measured  by  any  standard,  a  high  degree  of  excellence 
must  be  accorded  to  them  all. 


76  The  Sphere  of  Religio7i 

Two  oft-quoted  passages  will  summarize  his  life  and 
views.  "At  fifteen,"  he  says,  "  I  had  my  mind  bent 
on  learning  ;  at  thirty  I  stood  firm  ;  at  forty  I  had  no 
doubts  ;  at  fifty  I  knew  the  decrees  of  heaven  ;  at  sixty 
my  ear  was  an  obedient  organ  ;  at  seventy  I  could  fol- 
low what  my  heart  desired  without  transgressing  what 
was  right."  When  asked  by  a  disciple,  "  Is  there  one 
word  which  may  serve  as  a  rule  of  practice  for  all  one's 
life  ?  "  he  replied,  ' '  Is  not  reciprocity  such  a  word  ? 
What  you  do  not  want  done  to  yourself,  do  not  do  to 
others."  Though  this  golden  rule  happens  to  be 
negative  in  its  form,  it  has  all  the  force  and  intent  of  a 
positive  injunction. 

The  fourth  book  is  written  by  Mencius,  by  far  the 
greatest  of  the  early  Confucians,  and  the  main  effect  of 
it  is  to  lay  down  the  principles  of  a  government  that  is 
wise  and  just  and  good. 

To  explain  the  vast  influence  that  Confucianism,  as 
a  system  of  ethics  and  a  religion,  has  exerted  for  cen- 
turies, and  still  exerts,  over  the  Chinese  mind,  we  have 
to  observe  in  the  first  place  that  it  is  wonderfully 
adapted  to  the  prosaic,  practical,  and  conservative  ten- 
dencies of  the  people.  In  the  second  place,  it  assumes 
the  inherent  goodness  of  human  nature,  and  holds  that 
wisdom  and  righteousness  can  be  acquired  by  the  strict 
and  faithful  performance  of  appointed  duties  and  the 
cultivation  of  proper  feelings  and  sentiments.  And  in 
the  third  place,  it  extols  education  as  the  means  of  re- 
novating mankind  and  inaugurating  a  time  of  universal 
prosperity  and  peace. 

Through  its  influence  schools  have  been  diffused 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  empire,  ex- 
tending even  to  the  remote  villages.  The  doctrines  of 
Confucius  constitute  the  chief  part  of  the  instruction 


Iliad  and  Theogony  of  the  Greeks         7  7 

given  in  them,  and  up  to  1906  no  one  could  enter  the 
public  service  or  be  promoted  in  it  without  passing  a 
thorough  examination  on  their  contents.  In  Japan 
and  Korea  the  authority  of  Confucius  among  the 
educated  classes,  until  the  last  few  years,  was  almost  as 
unquestioned  as  in  his  native  land.  He  has  been 
"  during  twenty-three  centuries  the  daily  teacher  and 
guide  of  a  third  of  the  human  race. ' ' 

Confucianism  inculcates  many  of  the  characteristics 
of  a  genuine  religious  life,  such  as  reverence  for  the 
past,  love  of  knowledge,  regard  for  peace  and  or- 
der, and  filial  piety.  But  what  it  vitally  needs  is  a 
larger  outlook.  It  needs  to  supplement  regard  for  the 
past  with  hope  for  the  future,  its  stability  with  the 
idea  of  progress,  its  faith  in  man  with  faith  in  a  Higher 
Power,  its  appreciation  of  time  with  an  equal  appreci- 
ation of  eternity. 

e.  The  Iliad  and  the  Theogony  of  the  Greeks. 
— The  chief  Sacred  Scriptures  of  the  ancient  Greeks 
were  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  of  Homer,  and  the  Theogr 
ony  of  Hesiod.  For  this  statement  we  have  the  ex- 
plicit assertion  of  no  less  an  authority  than  Herodotus 
himself.  He  says  distinctly,  "  lam  of  the  opinion  that 
Hesiod  and  Homer  lived  four  hundred  years  before  my 
time  and  not  more,  and  these  were  they  who  framed  a 
theogony  for  the  Greeks,  and  gave  names  to  the  gods, 
and  assigned  to  them  honors  and  arts,  and  declared 
their  several  forms"  (ii.,  53). 

This  is  also  the  view  of  the  latest  scholars.  Professor 
Seymour  of  Yale  in  his  commentary  upon  the  Ho- 
meric poems  declares,  "To  the  ancient  Greek  mind, 
the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  formed  a  sort  of  Bible,  to  which 
reference  was  made  as  to  an  ultimate  authority."  He 
would  undoubtedly  have  included  in  this  statement  the 


78  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

Theogony  of  Hesiod,  if  occasion  had  called  for  any 
reference  to  that  work. 

To  the  student  of  ancient  history  it  is  no  accident 
that  the  revealers  of  the  ways  of  the  gods  among  the 
Greeks  were  poets.  For  poets  were  looked  upon  by 
them  as  equal  to  prophets,  and  no  such  distinction  was 
made  between  them  as  we  are  inclined  to  make  in  our 
day.  Everything  in  nature  and  life  they  instinctively 
regarded  from  the  poetic  point  of  view.  To  the  Greeks, 
as  James  Freeman  Clarke  has  so  well  said  in  his  Ten 
Great  Religio7is\  **  all  the  phenomena  of  nature,  all  the 
events  of  life  became  a  marvellous  tissue  of  divine 
story.  They  walked  the  earth  surrounded  and  over- 
shadowed by  heavenly  attendants  and  supernatural 
powers.  .  .  .  Their  gods  were  not  their  terror,  but 
their  delight.  Even  the  great  gods  of  Olympus  were 
around  them  as  invisible  companions.  Fate  itself,  the 
dark  Moira,  supreme  power,  mistress  of  gods  and  men, 
was  met  manfully  and  not  timorously.  So  strong 
was  the  human  element,  the  sense  of  personal  dignity 
and  freedom,  that  the  Greeks  lived  in  the  midst  of 
a  supernatural  world  on  equal  terms." 

The  question  of  the  origin  of  the  Greek  religion  was 
a  mooted  one  even  among  the  Greeks  themselves,  and 
continued  to  be  so  until  very  recent  times.  Some  held 
that  it  was  almost  entirely  an  Egyptian  importation, 
while  others  regarded  it  as  a  native  product.  The 
advances  that  have  been  made  within  the  last  half-cen- 
tur}^  in  comparative  philology  have,  however,  settled 
the  matter  beyond  reasonable  doubt.  Recent  scholars 
tell  us  that  over  two  thousand  words  in  the  Greek 
language  are  found  in  the  Sanskrit,  showing  conclu- 
sively that  the  Greek  people  once  lived  in  Central  Asia 
and  brought  the  rudiments  of  their  religion  with  them 


Iliad  and  Theogony  of  the  Greeks         79 


when  they  migrated  from  that  country.  Later  addi- 
tions were  made  to  it  by  other  colonists  from  Phoenicia, 
Kgypt,  and  other  parts  of  the  East. 

To  Homer  and  Hesiod  belongs  the  honor  of  making 
the  first  attempt  to  put  these  early  traditions  into  per- 
manent form  and  bring  them  down  to  their  own  day. 
But  who  Homer  was  is  regarded  by  modern  scholars 
as  an  unsolved  mystery.  ''When  and  where  Homer 
lived,"  says  a  high  authority,  ''  no  one  knows.  Many 
stories  about  him  were  invented  and  told,  but  all  are 
without  support,"  the  one  about  his  blindness  being  the 
most  unlikely  of  all.  His  knowledge  of  anatomy  and 
of  the  details  of  battles,  for  example,  could  not  have 
been  acquired  by  one  deprived  of  the  power  of  sight. 

Indeed,  it  is  now  agreed  that  the  poems  attributed  to 
Homer   by  the  ancients  were  not  written  by  any  one 
person  ;  for  they  do  not  have  the  unity  we  find  in  such 
works  as  Vergil's  ^neid  and  Milton's  Paradise  Lost. 
Some  parts  of  the  Iliad  are  shown  by  scholars  to  be 
much  more  ancient  than  was  formerly  supposed,  and 
some  much  more  recent.     Oftentimes  the  details  of  the 
story  are  not  known  to  the  writer,  for  he  is  constantly 
appealing  to  the  inspiration  of  a  Muse   for  his  facts. 
That  there  was  a  conflict  between  the  ancient  Greeks 
and  Trojans,  and  that  Troy  was  destroyed  about  1180 
B.C.  has  been  made  quite  probable  by  the  excavations  of 
Dr.    Schliemann   since    1869,  showing  that    towns  of 
wealth  and  culture  like  those  described  in  the  poem,  ex- 
isted in  the  region  of  Mycenae  and  Ilium  at  that  time. 
The  Iliad  opens  with  the  visit   of  an   old  priest  of 
Apollo  to  the  camp  of  the  Greeks,  offering  rich  ransom 
for  his  daughter  whom  they  have  captured  and  given 
as  a  prize  to   one  of  their  chieftains.     It  is  the  tenth 
year  of  the  war  to  compel  Paris,  the  son  of  King  Priam 


So  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

of  Ilium,  to  return  Helen,  the  daughter  of  the  goddess 
Leda  and  Father  Zeus,  to  her  husband,  the  King  of 
Sparta.  For  from  him  Paris  had  stolen  her  with  the 
help  of  Aphrodite,  the  goddess  of  love.  As  the  Greeks 
had  brought  no  supplies  with  them  they  lived  by 
plunder  upon  the  neighboring  towns,  slaying  the  men 
or  selling  them  into  slavery  and  taking  the  women 
prisoners.  The  daughter  of  this  priest  had  been  taken 
in  this  way.  Her  captor  rudely  dismisses  the  suppli- 
cation of  her  father,  and  Apollo  sends  a  pestilence  upon 
the  Greeks  in  consequence. 

As  soon  as  the  cause  of  the  pestilence  becomes  known 
the  daughter  is  restored  in  order  to  win  back  the  divine 
favor.  lyater  the  Trojans  break  into  the  Grecian  camp 
and  work  great  slaughter,  but  finally  they  are  driven 
back  and  Hector  is  slain,  the  noblest  son  of  Priam. 
The  Iliad  closes  with  an  account  of  the  ransom  and 
burial  of  Hector.  The  action  of  the  Iliad  lasts  only 
six  weeks,  but  the  characteristics  and  relationships  of 
most  of  the  principal  gods  and  goddesses  are  vividly 
depicted  in  the  book  notwithstanding  this  fact. 

The  Odyssey  gives  a  description  of  the  wanderings 
and  hardships  of  Odysseus  or  Ulysses  after  leaving 
Troy  on  his  way  home.  Owing  to  the  ill  will  of  the 
god  Poseidon  he  is  helplessly  driven  about  for  the  pe- 
riod of  ten  years  from  one  country  to  another  in  various 
parts  of  the  world.  At  first  he  comes  to  the  land  of  the 
lyOtus-eaters,  then  to  the  island  of  the  Cyclops,  one  of 
whom  devours  six  of  his  comrades.  Later  another  race 
of  giants  destroys  most  of  his  ships.  Finally  he  is  cast 
upon  the  island  of  a  sea-nymph  who  cares  for  him  till 
the  goddess  Athene  persuades  Father  Zeus  to  allow  his 
return  home.  After  many  further  trials  and  sufferings 
he  reaches  his  native  shore.    By  the  help  of  his  son, 


Iliad  and  Theogony  of  the  Greeks        8i 

whom  he  had  left  twenty  years  before  as  an  infant,  he 
slays  the  insolent  suitors  of  his  wife  and  regains  his 
kingdom. 

While  there  is  a  universal  agreement  among  scholars 
that  these  Homeric  poems  are  the  oldest  works  of  Greek 
literature  that  have  come  down  to  us,  none  of  them 
hold  that  they  are  the  oldest  poems  that  the  Greeks 
produced.  Brief  lyrics  on  various  themes  such  as  love 
and  war,  and  short  epics  celebrating  the  deeds  of  the 
gods  and  the  exploits  of  famous  men  must  have  been 
long  in  circulation  among  the  people  before  any  poet 
thought  of  composing  such  extended  works  as  these. 
So  far  from  being  the  pure  creations  of  the  age  of 
Homer,  they  are  universally  regarded  as  consisting 
chiefly  of  a  body  of  myths  and  legends  that  had  de- 
scended from  earlier  times.  Kven  the  language  and 
verse  are  inheritances  from  former  generations. 

Of  the  personality  of  Hesiod,  the  author  of  the  Theo- 
gony, there  seems  to  be  no  doubt.  He  himself  tells  us 
that  he  was  born  in  the  little  village  of  "  Ascra,  in 
winter  vile,  in  summer  most  villainous,  and  at  no  time 
glorious."  Here  it  was  that  he  fed  his  lambs  beneath 
divine  Helicon.  Here,  as  he  says,  * '  the  Olympian 
Muses,  daughters  of  aegis-bearing  Jove,  breathed  into 
me  a  voice  divine  that  T  might  sing  of  both  the  future 
and  the  past,  and  they  bade  me  hymn  the  race  of  ever- 
living  blessed  gods." 

Hesiod  is  essentially  a  prophet.  The  message  he 
delivers  he  declares  is  not  from  himself.  He  did  not 
discover  by  his  own  researches  the  truths  he  proclaims. 
He  thinks  of  himself  as  simply  the  mouthpiece  of  the 
Muses.  As  another  has  expressed  it,  *'  Personal  opin- 
ion and  feeling  may  tinge  his  utterance,  but  they  do 
not  determine  its  general  complexion."     He  is  in  his 


82  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

own  opinion  one  whom  the  gods  have  empowered  to 
speak  for  them  and  to  make  known  their  thoughts  con- 
cerning man.  The  legends  and  myths  he  incorporates 
in  his  story  were  regarded  by  him  and  his  age  as  reHcs 
of  sacred  history.  Scholars  in  our  day  regard  him  as 
doing  little  more  than  to  record,  and  in  some  degree  to 
harmonize,  tales  more  or  less  generally  current.  The 
many  stories  of  gross  cannibalism  and  outrageous  im- 
morality among  the  gods  that  he  narrates  must  have 
come  down  to  his  time  from  utterly  savage  forefathers. 

Hesiod's  work  was  regarded  by  the  ancient  Greeks  as 
their  Book  of  Genesis.  For  he  claims  to  give  in  it  by 
divine  inspiration  a  history  of  the  successive  genera- 
tions of  the  immortal  gods.  In  the  beginning,  he  says, 
Chaos  alone  was.  Then  came  broad-bosomed  Earth  or 
Gaia,  and  Tartarus,  a  dark  and  gloomy  region  beneath 
the  earth.  Afterwards  Eros,  or  Eove,  appeared.  Out 
of  Chaos  sprang  Erebus  and  black  Night,  and  from 
them  came  forth  Ether  and  Day.  Earth  brought  forth 
the  starry  Heaven  or  Uranos,  then  vast  mountains, 
"  lovely  haunts  of  deities,"  and  afterwards  Pontus,  or 
the  barren  Sea.  Thus  it  was  that  the  first  generation 
of  gods  came  into  being. 

Hesiod  is  here  evidently  describing  the  activity  of 
the  mighty  primeval  forces  of  nature,  giving  the  matter 
its  appropriate  poetical  dress.  We  to-day  would  call 
the  lyove  of  which  he  speaks  the  power  of  attraction 
bringing  together  otherwise  discordant  elements  into 
order  and  harmony. 

The  second  generation  was  the  period  of  the  Titans, 
gigantic  semi-personal  powers.  By  the  intermarriage 
of  Earth  and  Heaven  they  were  produced,  twelve  in 
number,  six  males,  and  six  females.  But  Heaven 
feared  his  own  children  and  shut  them  up  in  Tartarus. 


Iliad  and  Theogony  of  the  Greeks         83 

Earth,  however,  came  to  their  aid  and  let  them  out. 
They  overthrew  their  father  and  placed  Chronos,  or 
Time,  upon  the  throne.  The  children  of  Time  headed 
by  Zeus  rose  up  against  him  and  the  Titans  were  again 
imprisoned  in  Tartarus,  watched  over  by  the  Cyclops 
and  the  hundred-handed  Giants. 

Hesiod  gives  a  vivid  account  of  this  battle  with  the 
Titans.  After  describing  how  Zeus  by  feasting  his 
brothers  and  sisters  upon  ' '  nectar  and  delightful  am- 
brosia "  had  induced  them  to  join  in  it,  he  continues  in 
part  as  follows :  ' '  They  then  were  pitted  against  the 
Titans  in  deadly  combat,  holding  huge  rocks  in  their 
sturdy  hands.  But  the  Titans  on  the  other  side  made 
strong  their  squadrons  with  alacrity,  and  both  parties 
were  showing  work  of  hand  and  force  at  the  same  time, 
and  the  boundless  sea  re-echoed  terribly,  and  earth 
resounded  loudly,  and  broad  heaven  groaned,  being 
shaken,  and  vast  Olympus  was  convulsed  from  its  base 
under  the  violence  of  the  immortals.  .  .  .  Nor  longer, 
in  truth,  did  Jove  restrain  his  fury,  but  then  forthwith 
his  heart  was  filled  with  fierceness,  and  he  began  also 
to  exhibit  all  his  force  ;  then,  I  wot,  from  heaven  and 
from  Olympus  together  he  went  forth  lightning  con- 
tinually ;  and  'the  bolts  close  together  with  thunder 
and  lightning  flew  duly  from  his  sturdy  hand,  whirl- 
ing a  sacred  flash,  in  frequent  succession,  while  all 
around  life-giving  Earth  was  crashing  in  conflagration, 
and  the  immense  forests  on  all  sides  crackled  loudly 
with  fire.  All  land  was  boiling,  and  Ocean's  streams 
and  the  barren  sea.  Hot  vapor  was  circling  the  earth- 
born  Titans,  and  the  incessant  blaze  reached  the 
atmosphere  of  heaven,  whilst  flashing  radiance  of 
thunderbolt  and  lightning  was  bereaving  their  eyes 
of  sight  "  (Banks's  translation). 


84  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

The  result  of  this  mighty  conflict  was  that  the  Titan 
gods  were  at  last  conquered  and  banished  to  a  dreary 
place  "  under  murky  darkness"  "  as  far  beneath  under 
earth  as  heaven  is  from  the  earth."  "  From  it  they 
will  never  escape,  for  Neptune  has  placed  above  them 
brazen  gates  and  a  wall  goes  round  them  on  both 
sides." 

The  inhabitants  of  Olympus  constituted  the  third 
generation.  By  this  time  the  gods  had  reached  the 
stage  of  development  in  which  they  ceased  to  be  ab- 
stract ideas  or  the  powers  of  nature,  and  had  become 
genuine  personalities,  with  distinctly  personal  quali- 
ties, a  personal  history,  and  a  personal  life.  Every 
Greek  was  taught  to  believe  that  a  supreme  council  of 
twelve  national  gods,  together  with  a  vast  retinue 
of  lesser  gods  and  goddesses,  dwelt  upon  the  glistening 
snow-capped  heights  of  Mount  Olympus  around  its 
highest  peak  and  ruled  the  universe.  Five  of  these 
Olympian  gods  were  children  of  Chronos  or  Time, 
namely,  Zeus,  Poseidon,  Here,  Hestia,  and  Demeter. 
Six  were  children  of  Zeus, — Apollo  and  Artemis,  He- 
phaestos  and  Ares,  Hermes  and  Athene.  The  twelfth 
was  Aphrodite,  the  goddess  of  Beauty,  who  survived 
from  the  second  generation.  For  Beauty  in  the  opinion 
of  the  Greeks  was  much  older  than  Power. 

The  highest  and  mightiest  and  wisest  of  all  the 
Olympians  was  Zeus,  whom  the  Romans  called  at  a 
later  time  Zeus-Pater,  or  Jupiter.  His  father  had  in- 
tended to  swallow  him  as  he  had  swallowed  all  his 
other  children  as  soon  as  they  were  born,  but  his 
mother  substituted  a  stone  for  the  child.  Then  she 
secretly  conveyed  him  to  a  cave  on  Mt.  Ida  in  Crete, 
where  he  was  brought  up  by  a  nymph.  He  rapidly 
became  so  mighty  in  strength  that  at  the  end  of  a  year 


Ihaa  and  Theogony  of  the  Greeks         85 

he  attacked  his  father  and  gave  him  an  emetic  that 
caused  him  to  vomit  forth  his  elder  brothers  and  sisters. 
By  their  aid  he  soon  deposed  his  father  and  took  control 
of  the  empire  of  the  universe. 

The  realm  of  the  heavens  he  reserved  to  himself, 
while  the  rule  of  the  sea  he  gave  to  his  brother 
Poseidon,  and  that  of  lower  world  to  Hades.  Being 
the  father  of  many  men  as  well  as  gods,  Zeus  watched 
over  all  human  actions,  but  especially  those  of  the 
family  and  the  state.  He  sat  enthroned  in  ether  on 
high  mountains,  where  he  gathered  together  the  clouds 
and  sent  forth  the  storm  and  the  rain.  The  eagle  and 
the  thunderbolt  were  the  messengers  of  his  power. 

Second  in  command  among  the  inhabitants  of  Olym- 
pus was  Poseidon,  afterwards  called  by  the  Romans 
Neptune.  He  surrounded  the  earth  and  ruled  the  sea, 
which  to  the  Greeks  had  an  importance  that  we  can 
hardly  overestimate.  He  agitated  or  quieted  the 
waves  at  his  will  and  was  the  cause  of  all  earthquakes, 
for  the  Greeks  thought  that  they  originated  in  the  sea. 
The  waves  were  his  horses,  and  hence  he  was  regarded 
as  the  creator  of  all  horses.  With  his  trident  he  smote 
the  rocks  and  caused  water  to  gush  forth  from  them  in 
abundance.  His  temper  was  as  variable  and  stormy 
as  the  surface  of  the  sea. 

Next  came  Apollo,  the  god  of  light  and  hence  of  the 
sun.  To  him  was  due  the  preservation  and  increase  of 
vegetable,  animal,  and  human  life.  Physical  health, 
manly  vigor,  and  masculine  beauty  were  his  gifts. 
He  was  the  god  of  athletics,  of  the  chase,  and  of  war, 
as  well  as  the  healer  of  disease.  His  anger  brought 
on  disease  and  death.  He  was  the  god  not  merely  of 
physical  light,  but  also  of  mental.  Hence  all  insight 
into  the  future,  all  prophecy  sprang  from  him.     He 


86  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

was  the  fountain-head  of  poetical  inspiration,  music, 
and  song,  and,  therefore,  the  leader  of  the  Muses.  The 
island  of  Delos  was  his  birthplace,  and  his  parents 
were  Zeus  and  lycto. 

Fourth  in  the  list  was  Hephsestos,  whom  the  Romans 
later  called  Vulcan.  He  was  the  author  of  fire  and  the 
smith  of  the  gods.  He  had  a  huge  frame  and  was  strong 
and  powerful  as  to  the  upper  part  of  his  body,  but  his 
legs  were  so  weak  and  puny  that  he  could  hardly  hobble 
along  with  a  staff.  He  did  not  look  like  a  god,  but  the 
character  of  his  handiwork  showed  forth  his  divinity, 
for  it  far  surpassed  anything  that  any  man  could  execute. 

According  to  Homer  he  was  the  son  of  Zeus  and  Here, 
and  his  lameness  was  due  to  the  fact  that  one  time  when 
his  parents  were  having  a  violent  quarrel  he  spoke  up 
in  favor  of  his  mother.  Whereupon  his  father  seized  him 
by  the  feet  and  flung  him  out  of  heaven  head  foremost, 
twisting  the  bones  of  his  legs  out  of  joint  in  the  opera- 
tion. According  to  Hesiod  he  was  the  son  of  Here 
alone,  who  produced  him  out  of  envy  without  a  father, 
because  Zeus  had  produced  Athene  without  her  aid. 
But  when  his  mother  found  that  he  was  lame  she  threw 
him  out  of  heaven  hoping  that  thus  he  might  escape 
the  gaze  of  the  gods.  He  was  cared  for  by  two  nymphs 
for  nine  years  in  their  home  in  the  depths  of  the  sea, 
where  he  wrought  many  extraordinary  works. 

Volcanoes  were  his  workshops.  In  them  metals  were 
forged  into  all  conceivable  shapes.  As  the  soil  of  vol- 
canoes was  found  to  be  the  best  for  maturing  excellent 
wines,  he  was  appointed  to  the  office  of  cup-bearer  to  the 
gods.  Homer  tells  us  in  the  Iliad  that  he  was  constantly 
ridiculed  at  their  feasts  for  his  awkwardness  (due  to  his 
limping  gait)  as  he  went  around  from  one  couch  to  an- 
other handing  each   the  cup.  "And  then,"   he  says, 


Iliad  and  Theogony  of  the  Greeks        87 

* '  inextinguishable  laughter  arose  among  the  immortal 
gods  when  they  saw  Vulcan  bustling  through  the 
mansion." 

After  Hephaestos  comes  Ares,  the  god  of  war,  whom 
the  Romans  identified  with  their  Mars.  He  was  the  son 
of  Zeus  and  Here  and  the  favorite  of  Aphrodite,  who 
bore  him  several  children.  Battles  and  slaughter  were 
his  delight  purely  for  their  own  sake.  Nothing  pleased 
him  so  much  as  to  witness  the  wholesale  destruction  of 
men.  Having  no  other  purpose  to  accomplish  he 
adhered  first  to  one  side  in  a  battle  and  then  to  the  other. 
In  order  to  make  the  carnage  as  terrible  as  possible  he 
took  with  him  into  battle  besides  other  companions  his 
sister  Strife  and  his  sons  Horror  and  Fear,  that  they 
might  add  to  the  slaughter.  Sometimes  he  himself  was 
the  sufferer.  On  one  occasion  when  he  was  wounded  by 
Diomede,  Homer  says  of  him  that  in  his  fall  "  he  roared 
like  nine  or  ten  thousand  warriors  together." 

The  next  in  importance  is  Hermes  (the  Latin  Mer- 
cury), the  swift  and  trusted  messenger  and  herald  of 
the  gods.  He  is  the  go-between  in  all  their  intrigues, 
and  being  the  god  of  all  intercourse,  he  becomes  the 
god  of  all  traders,  and  hence,  also,  of  thieves  and  liars. 
According  to  the  so-called  Homeric  Hymn  to  Hermes, 
immediately  after  his  birth  in  a  cave  on  Mount  Cyllene 
in  Arcadia  he  went  forth  from  his  cradle  and  stole  a 
large  herd  of  cattle  belonging  to  his  brother,  Apollo, 
pulling  them  backwards  into  his  cave  by  their  tails. 
When  Apollo  caught  him  and  dragged  him  before  their 
father  Zeus  he  stoutly  denied  the  theft,  but  he  was 
speedily  convicted  and  had  to  agree  to  give  the  cattle 
up.  But  before  he  had  done  so  he  showed  Apollo  a 
lyre  that  he  had  made  out  of  an  old  tortoise  shell  that 
he  had  discovered,  in  which  only  the  dried  sinews  re- 


88  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


mained.    Apollo  was  so  taken  with  the  trinket  that  he 
let  Hermes  keep  the  cattle  in  exchange  for  it. 

He  invented  the  flute  and  sold  it  to  Apollo  for  the 
caduceus,  or  herald's  staff  and  prophetic  powers.  With 
this  wand  he  could  quickly  make  the  most  intractible 
obedient  to  his  will.  He  was  consequently  the  patron 
of  orators  and  the  god  of  chance.  According  to  some 
he  was  the  god  of  weights  and  measures  and  all  science. 
He  was  worshipped  all  over  Greece  and  was  generally 
represented  with  winged  hat  and  feet. 

Here,  later  called  Juno,  was,  according  to  Hesiod, 
among  the  elder  brothers  and  sisters  that  Zeus  caused 
his  father  Chronos  to  vomit  forth  by  giving  him  an 
emetic.  After  her  rescue  she  immediately  became  the 
wife  of  Zeus  and  the  queen  of  heaven.  She  was  thus  a 
very  ancient  and  venerable  goddess.  Homer  frequently 
speaks  of  her  as  "  the  venerable  ox-eyed  Here,"  though 
he  represents  her  as  obstinate  and  quarrelsome.  Her 
temper  was  a  constant  source  of  discord  between  herself 
and  her  lord,  although  she  greatly  feared  him.  At  one 
time  Zeus  not  only  scolded  and  beat  her  as  was  his  wont, 
but  actually  tied  her  hands  together  and  hung  her  up 
in  the  clouds. 

Her  jealousy  was  proverbial.  She  bitterly  resented 
the  innumerable  amours  of  her  husband  and  often 
vented  her  wrath  upon  the  women  involved  in  them 
and  their  offspring.  She  intensely  disliked  Hercules 
and  sent  the  Sphinx  to  distress  the  Thebans  because 
he  was  born  in  their  country.  The  Trojans  she  bitterly 
hated  because  Paris  did  not  award  her  the  golden  ap- 
ple that  had  inscribed  on  it,  *'  To  the  most  beautiful." 
Being  the  only  wedded  goddess  in  Greek  mythology 
she  naturally  presided  over  marriage.  If  the  rites  of 
her  own  marriage  were  followed,   it  became  thereby 


Iliad  and  Theogony  of  the  Greeks         8g 

especially  sacred.      She  was  universally  regarded  as 
the  noblest  of  the  Olympian  dames. 

Next  came  Athene,  or  Pallas- Athene,  known  to  the 
Romans  as  Minerva,  who  was  commonly  supposed  to 
have  sprung  full- armored  from  the  head  of  Zeus  by 
his  own  power.  Other  versions  state  that  Zeus  swal- 
lowed her  mother  before  she  was  born  and  that  Hephaes- 
tos  to  relieve  his  pains  split  his  head  open  with  an 
axe  and  let  her  out.  She  was  the  favorite  daughter  of 
Zeus  and  little  inferior  to  him  in  power,  often  wielding 
his  aegis  in  his  stead.  Being  a  warlike  goddess  she 
was  much  worshipped  in  the  citadels  of  fortified  towns. 
Sacred  images  of  her,  called  Palladia,  were  said  at 
times  to  fall  from  heaven  and  were  preserved  with  the 
utmost  care,  for  the  possession  of  one  of  them  in  a 
city  made  it  impregnable.  Homer  tells  us  that  the 
Palladium  of  Troy  was  the  gift  of  Zeus  to  the  founder 
of  Ilium,  and  that  when  Ulysses  and  Diomede  stole  it, 
victory  went  to  the  Greeks. 

She  was  not  merely  the  source  of  heroic  valor,  but 
chiefly  of  military  wisdom  and  careful  strategy.  Hence 
she  was  regarded  as  the  patron  of  all  learning  from  the 
humblest  arts  to  the  most  profound  philosophy.  Sacred 
to  her  were  the  serpent,  the  owl,  and  the  olive  which 
she  gave  to  her  favorite  city,  Athens,  so  named  in  her 
honor.  There  she  presided  over  the  courts  and  de- 
voted herself  assiduously  to  the  preservation  of  the  lib- 
erties and  well-being  of  its  citizens.  Together  with 
Apollo  and  Zeus  she  formed  the  supreme  triad  of  the 
religion  of  the  ancient  Greeks.  Power  came  from 
Zeus,  wisdom  from  Athene,  and  the  mission  of  Apollo 
was  to  reveal  to  mortals  the  results  of  their  harmo- 
nious union.  The  worship  of  Athene  was  universal 
throughout  the  whole  of  Greece. 


go  The  Sphe7'e  of  Religion 

Ninth  in  the  list  of  these  Olympian  deities  was 
Artemis  (later  called  Diana),  the  twin  sister  of  Apollo 
and  the  sharer  of  his  attributes  of  destruction  and  heal- 
ing. As  a  destroying  goddess  she  was  thought  of  as  a 
full-grown  virgin  armed  with  bow  and  arrows  with 
which  she  often  took  vengeance  upon  her  enemies.  In 
her  capacity  as  a  preserving  deity,  she  watched  over 
the  sick  and  helped  those  in  distress.  She  was  the  pa- 
troness of  chastity  and  her  ministers  were  pledged  to 
chastity  by  the  strictest  vows.  Just  as  her  brother 
presided  over  the  sun  and  was  often  called  Phoebus,  so 
she  was  the  moon-god  and  frequently  went  by  the 
name  of  Phoebe.  Woods  and  lakes  were  her  favorite 
haunts  and  she  often  lead  in  chase  and  war.  In  later 
years  her  temple  at  Ephesus  was  one  of  the  seven 
wonders  of  the  world. 

Aphrodite  (later  Venus)  comes  next,  the  goddess  of 
sensual  love.  She  was  not  an  original  creation  of  the 
Greeks  but  was  imported  from  Phoenicia  where  under 
the  name  of  Astarte  she  had  many  worshippers.  Hesiod 
asserts  that  she  first  appeared  in  the  foam  of  the  sea  on 
the  shores  of  "wave-dashed  Cyprus,"  and  that  when 
she  landed  on  the  island,  attended  by  nymphs  and  tri- 
tons,  flowers  sprang  up  under  her  feet  and  all  nature 
rejoiced.  Homer  represents  her  as  the  daughter  of 
Zeus  and  Dione  and  as  much  at  ease  in  the  Olympian 
circle. 

Though  the  reputed  wife  of  Hephaestos,  accounts  of 
her  amours  with  other  gods  and  with  mortals  abounded 
among  the  legends  of  the  Greeks.  She  generally  fig- 
ured as  the  inspirer  of  unworthy  passion  and  the  enemy 
of  chastity.  Courtesans  held  her  in  high  repute  and 
sacred  prostitution  was  practised  in  many  of  her  tem- 
ples.    Still   there   were  some   places   where   she   was 


Iliad  and  TJieogony  of  the  Greeks        9 1 

worshipped    as   the  goddess  of   married    and  chaste 
love. 

Hestia  (the  Roman  Vesta),  the  eleventh  of  the 
blessed  Olympians,  was  the  first-born  daughter  of 
Chronos  and,  as  the  fire-goddess,  she  presided  over  the 
family  hearth.  The  deeds  of  Aphrodite  she  utterly 
abhorred,  and,  when  wooed  by  Apollo  and  Poseidon, 
swore  by  the  head  of  Zeus  always  to  be  a  virgin.  A 
libation  was  poured  out  to  her  on  the  hearthstone  at 
the  beginning  of  a  feast  and  even  of  an  ordinary  meal. 
Scarcely  any  private  or  public  ceremony  was  begun 
without  first  making  her  an  offering.  She  united  the 
family  together  and  was  the  centre  of  the  family  life. 
She  was  honored  in  the  temples  of  all  the  gods  and  at 
every  fireside.  The  sacred  flame  to  Hestia  was  to  be 
kept  burning  in  every  community  and  carried  wherever 
a  colony  went  to  found  a  new  home. 

The  last  of  the  twelve  Olympian  immortals  was  De- 
meter,  later  known  as  Ceres,  literally  Mother  Earth. 
She  was  a  sister  of  Zeus  and  by  him  she  became  the 
mother  of  Persephone,  whom  Hades  caught  while  she 
was  gathering  flowers  in  a  meadow  and  carried  off  to 
the  lower  world.  Demeter  long  sought  for  her  daugh- 
ter in  vain  until  the  all-seeing  Helios  told  her  of  her  fate. 
In  her  grief  she  hid  herself  and  the  earth  ceased  to  yield 
her  fruit.  Finally  Zeus  sent  Hermes  to  compel  Hades 
to  give  up  his  wife  to  her  mother.  But  owing  to  the 
fact  that  she  had  been  persuaded  by  Hades  to  eat  a 
pomegranate  she  was  not  free  to  leave  her  husband.  A 
compromise  was  affected  by  which  she  should  spend  two 
thirds  of  the  year  with  her  mother  and  one  third  with 
her  husband. 

Demeter  in  her  wanderings  had  been  kindly  enter- 
tained at  Kleusis  and,  in  return,  had  blessed  the  spot. 


Q2  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

There  the  Eleusinian  Mysteries  were  celebrated  in  her 
honor.  This  incident  in  the  life  of  Demeter  is  told  at 
length  in  the  sacred  Homeric  H3^mn  to  Demeter  where 
she  is  often  called  the  fruitbringer,  the  goddess  of  the 
spring  season.  She  presided  over  the  seed  time  and 
harvest  and  was,  therefore,  the  goddess  of  settled  insti- 
tutions and  laws. 

Besides  the  twelve  immortal  inhabitants  of  Olympus 
enumerated  above,  the  Greeks  worshipped  an  indefi- 
nite number  of  scarcely  lesser  deities  ;  every  river  and 
mountain,  every  forest  and  dell,  every  sight  and  sound, 
indeed,  every  thought  and  act  had  its  god. 

The  bond  of  connection  between  gods  and  men  was 
the  Greek  idea  of  heroes.  They  were  the  offspring  of 
gods  and  beautiful  earth-born  women.  Thus  the  sons 
of  the  gods  became  the  founders  of  races  and  the  patrons 
of  the  professions  and  the  arts.  The  Greeks  never  had 
the  dark  and  terrible  notion  of  two  rival  principles,  a 
good  and  a  bad,  contending  for  the  mastery  of  the  uni- 
verse. They  humanized  everything,  even  their  gods 
who  freely  allied  themselves  with  mortals,  and  no  me- 
diator stood  between  them.  Every  man,  woman,  and 
child  was  at  liberty  to  worship,  or  sacrifice,  or  pray 
whenever  and  wherever,  and  as  often  as,  the  heart  de- 
sired. Hence  the  Greek  religion  was  "dogmatically 
as  well  as  practically  one  of  the  brightest  and  most  joy- 
ous, no  less  than  the  mildest  and  most  tolerant,  of 
ancient  creeds. ' ' 

Still  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  gods  of  the  Greeks 
had  few  if  any  of  the  attributes  of  real  divinity.  They 
were  made  in  the  image  of  men  and  had  all  the  passions 
and  vices  of  men.  Heraclitus  well  expressed  the  mat- 
ter from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Greeks  when  he  said  : 
' '  Men  are  mortal  gods  and  the  gods  are  immortal  men. ' ' 


Iliad  and  Theogony  of  the  Greeks         93 


For  the  gods  had  no  higher  aim  than  to  have  a  good 
time.  Their  usual  occupation  according  to  Homer  was 
to  make  love,  to  fight,  and  to  feast.  In  one  of  their 
fights  represented  in  the  twenty-first  book  of  the  Iliad, 
Homer  says  that  Athene  seized  a  stone  and  struck  Ares 
on  the  neck  with  it,  and  that  when  he  fell  he  covered 
seven  acres  and  defiled  his  back  with  dust.  In  the 
same  fight  Here  held  both  of  the  hands  of  Artemis  in 
one  of  hers  and  beat  her  over  the  head  with  her  own  bow. 
But  the  occasions  were  rare  when  they  did  not,  as  Ho- 
mer says,  "  feast  all  day  till  sundown"  and  then  "retire 
to  repose,  each  one  to  his  own  house,  which  renowned 
Vulcan,  lame  in  both  legs,  had  built."  Whenever 
they  took  part  in  the  affairs  of  men  it  was  usually  to 
gratify  some  whim  or  passion.  They  had  little  or  no 
moral  purpose  and  did  not  by  precept  or  example  un- 
dertake to  guide  the  consciences  of  men.  No  wonder 
that  Plato  was  shocked  at  their  doings  as  depicted  by 
Hesiod  and  Homer,  and  would  not  allow  the  writings 
of  these  poets  a  place  in  his  ideal  state. 

Yet  in  spite  of  all  these  defects  it  must  be  granted  that 
the  religion  of  the  Greeks  has  furnished  to  the  world 
some  of  the  most  important  ideas  of  a  genuine  religious 
life.  It  represented  the  gods  as  imminent,  ever-present 
powers,  and  not  mere  outside  forces  having  nothing  to 
do  with  the  ongoings  of  the  universe,  and  thus  it  set 
forth  the  great  truth  that  all  nature  is  alive  with  the 
divine.  It  taught  that  man  could  acquaint  himself 
with  the  gods  and  co-operate  with  them  as  a  friend  and 
companion.  Nothing,  therefore,  that  concerned  the 
gods  was  foreign  to  him.  It  emphasized  the  fact  that 
man's  chief  mission  is  to  develop  himself  and  grow 
up  into  likeness  to  the  gods.  Because  of  these  ideas  it 
came  about  that  "  nowhere  on  the  earth,  before  or  since, 


Q4  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

has  the  human  being  been  educated  into  such  a  wonder- 
ful perfection,  such  an  entire  and  total  unfolding  of 
itself,  as  in  Greece. ' '  These  ideas  remain  to-day  the 
fundamental  teachings  of  a  truly  progressive  religious 
life. 

f.  The  Avesta  of  Zoroaster.— The  bible  of  the 
ancient  Persians  is  called  the  Avesta,  or  the  Zend- 
Avesta.  Avesta  probably  means  the  text  or  the  law, 
and  Zend,  commentary  or  explanation.  The  following 
facts  concerning  the  Avesta  and  its  history  are  chiefly 
taken  from  the  recently  published  investigations  of  the 
subject  by  Prof  A.  V.  WilHams  Jackson,  of  Columbia. 
The  discovery  and  first  deciphering  of  the  Avesta 
are  due  to  the  efforts  of  a  young  French  scholar  by  the 
name  of  Anquetil-Duperron.  In  1723  a  copy  of  a 
small  portion  of  the  Avesta  was  secured  from  the  Parsis 
in  Surat,  and  deposited  as  a  curiosity  in  the  Bodleian 
library  at  Oxford.  No  one,  however,  was  able  to  read 
the  text.  Anquetil  happened  to  see  in  Paris  some 
tracings  made  from  the  Oxford  manuscript,  and  im- 
mediately conceived  the  idea  of  going  to  India  and 
obtaining  from  the  priests  themselves  a  knowledge  of 
their  sacred  books.  In  1754  he  undertook  the  journey, 
and  after  seven  years  spent  in  overcoming  almost  in- 
surmountable obstacles,  he  succeeded  in  winning  the 
confidence  of  a  few  of  them  who  taught  him  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Avesta  and  initiated  him  into  some  of  their 
rites  and  ceremonies. 

The  translation  of  the  Avesta  published  by  Anquetil 
was  at  one  time  thought  to  be  a  forgery,  but  later  it 
was  conclusively  shown  to  be  substantially  correct.  It 
made  known  to  European  scholars  for  the  first  time 
what  is  acknowledged  to  be  one  of  the  most  ancient 
and  important  of  all  the  bibles  of  the  Eastern  world. 


The  Avesta  of  Zoroaster  95 

The  authorship  of  the  Avesta  is  unanimously  as- 
cribed by  both  classical  and  Persian  writers  to  Zoro- 
aster, whose  date  was  formerly  often  spoken  of  as  6000 
B.C.  This  was  due  to  a  misinterpretation  of  the 
Persian  chronology,  which  makes  a  difference  between 
the  existence  of  the  spiritual  essence  of  Zoroaster, 
which  his  disciples  claimed  began  at  that  date,  and 
the  bodily  existence.  Scholars  are  now  agreed  that 
his  physical  birth  occurred  about  660  B.C.,  in  the 
northern  part  of  Persia,  though  his  religious  activity 
was  chiefly  in  the  eastern  part.  Tradition  has  sur- 
rounded his  childhood  and  youth  with  numerous 
miracles,  but  in  reality  little  is  known  of  him  till  his 
thirtieth  year.  Then  he  appeared,  claiming  to  have 
received  direct  from  God  a  new  revelation.  He  at 
once  began  to  oppose  the  superstitious  beliefs  of  his 
day  and  to  urge  the  adoption  of  the  new  doctrines. 

Between  his  thirtieth  and  fortieth  year  seven  visions 
of  heavenly  and  divine  truth  are  said  to  have  come  to 
him.  After  the  visions  tradition  asserts  that  he  was 
led  b)^  the  devil  into  the  wilderness  to  be  tempted,  from 
which  trial  of  his  faith  he  came  off  entirely  the  victor. 
His  first  convert  was  his  cousin,  but  he  did  not  gain 
many  followers  until  he  converted  the  Persian  King 
Vishtaspa  and  his  court.  Then  his  doctrines  speedily 
extended  over  all  Iran.  After  a  life  of  great  activity 
and  usefulness,  he  was  slain  in  battle  during  an 
invasion  of  his  country  in  his  seventy -eighth  year. 

According  to  our  best  scholars  it  is  not  probable 
that  Zoroaster  wrote  anything.  The  revelations  that 
were  claimed  to  have  been  given  to  him  by  God  word 
for  word  in  the  form  of  conversations  were,  in  all  like- 
lihood, orally  preserved  by  his  disciples  and  handed 
down  by  them  to  posterity,  just  as  were  the  Vedas,  the 


q6  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

Talmud,  the  Koran,  and  the  sayings  of  Jesus.  The 
word  Zoroaster,  or  Zarathustra,  as  appUed  to  the 
authorship  of  the  Avesta,  is  now  regarded  as  indicating 
a  school  of  high  priests  of  which  Zoroaster  was  the 
founder  rather  than  the  name  of  any  individual.  In 
the  opinion  of  Professor  Jackson  some  portions  of  the 
book  probably  date  back  a  thousand  years  or  more 
before  Christ.  Many  parts  are  several  centuries  later, 
while  others  are  as  recent  as  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  era. 

The  Avesta  originally  was  many  times  more  exten- 
sive than  at  present.  Pliny  speaks  of  2,000,000  verses 
composed  by  Zoroaster,  and  Arabic  authorities  affirm 
that  it  was  inscribed  in  letters  of  gold  on  12,000  cow- 
hides and  deposited  in  the  palace  library  at  Persepolis, 
which  was  destroyed  by  the  Greeks  under  Alexander 
the  Great.  Making  all  allowance  for  Oriental  exag- 
geration, the  extent  of  the  original  Avesta  must  have 
been  very  great. 

From  the  time  of  the  Macedonian  conquest  to  the 
accession  of  the  Sassanian  kings,  that  is,  for  about  five 
hundred  years,  the  rehgion  of  ancient  Persia,  the  re- 
ligion of  Cyrus,  Darius,  and  Xerxes,  of  the  Magi  of 
the  New  Testament  who  came  to  worship  Jesus  at 
Bethlehem,  underwent  a  rapid  decline.  Many  of  the 
documents  containing  its  doctrines  were  neglected  and 
lost.  But  when  the  Sassanians  came  to  the  throne 
they  did  everything  in  their  power  to  revive  the  ancient 
faith.  They  collected  all  the  extant  fragments  of  the 
Zoroastrian  gospel  into  the  collection  we  now  possess, 
which  equals  in  extent  about  one  tenth  of  our  Bible. 

Like  our  Bible  it  is  a  collection  of  books.  The  first 
collection  is  called  the  Yasna  and  is  by  far  the  most 
important.    The  whole  of  it  now  comprises  seventy-two 


The  A  vest  a  of  Zoroaster  97 

chapters.  Probably  it  is  so  arranged  in  order  to  repre- 
sent twelve  times  the  six  "seasons"  the  Persian  god 
was  said  to  be  occupied  in  creating  the  world.  The 
Yasna  consists  chiefly  of  prayers  to  be  recited  at  such 
sacrificial  rites  as  the  consecration  of  the  holy  water  ; 
the  preparation  of  the  sacred  juice  called  Homa,  closely 
resembling  the  Vedic  Soma  and  serving  a  similar 
purpose  ;  the  offering  of  the  holy  cakes  which  were 
partaken  of  only  by  the  priests,  as  in  the  Catholic 
communion  serv^ice. 

In  the  midst  of  these  prayers  are  inserted  the  five 
Gathas  or  psalms  of  Zoroaster  which  take  the  place,  in 
this  form  of  religion,  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 
Most  scholars  now  maintain  that  they  are  the  only  por- 
tions of  the  sacred  Persian  scriptures  that  emanated 
directly  from  Zoroaster  himself  These  songs  or  dis- 
courses resemble  in  metre  the  Vedic  hymns.  They  be- 
gin with  the  heading:  *'The  Revealed  Thought,  the 
Revealed  Word,  the  Revealed  Deed  of  Zarathustra  the 
Holy;  the  archangels  first  sang  the  Gathas."  Some 
extracts  from  the  Gathas  run  as  follows  : 

'*I  desire  by  my  prayer  with  uplifted  hands  this  joy, — the 
works  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  Mazda,  ...  a  disposition  to  perform 
good  actions,  .  .  .  and  pure  gifts  for  both  worlds,  the  bodily 
and  spiritual." 

* '  I  keep  forever  purity  and  good-mindedness.  Teach  thou 
me  Ahura-Mazda,  out  of  thyself ;  from  heaven,  by  thy  mouth, 
whereby  the  world  first  arose." 

"  I  praise  Ahura-Mazda,  who  has  created  the  cattle,  created 
the  water  and  good  trees,  the  splendor  of  light,  the  earth  and 
all  good.  We  praise  the  Fravashis  of  the  pure  men  and  wo- 
men,— whatever  is  fairest,  purest,  immortal." 

"We  honor  the  good' spirit,  the  good  kingdom,  the  good 
law, — all  that  is  good." 

"  In  the  beginning,  the  two  heavenly  Ones  spoke — the  Good 
7 


g8  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

to  the  Evil — thus  :  *  Our  souls,  doctrines,  words,  works,  do  not 
unite  together.'  '* 

By  the  study  of  these  psalms  we  find  that  Zoroaster 
taught  that  there  are  two  principles  in  this  world  in 
constant  conflict  with  each  other,  the  principle  of  good 
and  light  and  life,  and  the  principle  of  sin,  dark- 
ness, and  death.  Ormazd,  or  Ahura-Mazda  as  he  is 
sometimes  called,  is  the  omniscient  and  omnipotent  em- 
bodiment of  the  former,  and  Ahriman  of  the  latter. 
They  are  primeval  and  co-eval,  but  not  co-eternal 
powers.  Nature  is  now  rent  asunder  by  the  conflict  of 
these  two  principles,  but  man  as  a  free  agent  will 
eventually  overthrow  and  annihilate  all  evil.  The 
time  will  come  when  the  good  kingdom  will  be  estab- 
lished. Ormazd  and  his  good  angels  will  triumph  ; 
Ahriman  with  his  legion  of  devils  will  be  destroyed. 

Zoroaster  exhorts  every  man  to  abjure  polytheism 
and  to  have  no  other  god  than  Ormazd,  to  eschew  all 
forms  of  evil  and  cleave  to  the  good,  to  think  lightly 
of  the  allurements  of  the  present  world,  and  fix  his 
thoughts  upon  the  joys  of  the  faithful  in  the  life  that 
is  to  come.  We  have  here  a  very  close  approach  to 
the  Jehovah  and  Satan  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
kingdom  of  righteousness  of  the  New. 

A  large  portion  of  the  other  parts  of  the  Yasna  was 
probably  composed  by  early  disciples  of  Zoroaster  and 
consists  chiefly  of  prayers  in  prose  addressed  to  Ahura- 
Mazda,  the  angels,  the  fire,  the  earth,  the  water, 
and  other  spiritual  beings  presiding  over  the  different 
parts  of  the  good  creation.  There  is  also  a  chapter 
containing  a  formula  used  in  initiating  converts  into 
the  new  religion . 

The  second  part  of  the  Avesta  is  a  collection  of  minor 


The  A  vesta  of  Zoroaster  gg 

litanies,  invocations,  etc.,  addressed  to  a  variety  of 
divinities  and  heads  of  the  faith.  The  third  part  is 
made  up  of  hymns  of  praise  of  certain  individual  angels 
or  mythical  heroes  and  is  probably  the  work  of  many 
Median  bards.  Then  follows  a  section  of  what  may  be 
called  Minor  Texts  forming  a  sort  of  manual  for  morn- 
ing devotion.  The  fifth  part  corresponds  to  our  Pen- 
tateuch and  is  the  code  of  religious,  civil,  and  criminal 
laws  of  the  ancient  Iranians.  It  is  evidently  the  work 
of  many  hands  and  many  centuries.  The  pursuit  of 
agriculture  is  especially  enjoined  and  the  care  of  useful 
animals.  Much  is  made  of  the  duty  of  keeping  the 
water  pure  and  of  sanitation  in  general.  For  bodily 
purity  is  considered  as  of  equal  value  with  moral  purity. 
The  sixth  and  last  part  is  a  general  appendix. 

The  power  of  Zoroastrianism  as  a  national  religion 
was  hopelessly  overthrown  by  the  Mohammedan  inva- 
sion of  641  A.D.  Those  who  did  not  adopt  the  creed 
of  their  conquerors  either  fled  to  the  mountains,  where 
they  remain  to-day  a  feeble  remnant  of  about  seven  or 
eight  thousand,  or  migrated  to  India,  where  they  now 
have  a  flourishing  colony  in  the  region  of  Bombay. 
There  they  are  called  Parsis  and  number  about  ninety 
thousand.  They  strenuously  protest  against  being 
called  fire-worshippers  and  are  noted  for  their  upright- 
ness, morality,  and  benevolence.  In  business  they  have 
shown  remarkable  ability  and  a  number  of  them  are 
among  the  weathiest  merchants  of  Bombay. 

The  religion  of  the  Avesta  has  much  in  common 
with  that  of  the  Vedas,  and  both  are  probably  derived 
from  a  common  Aryan  source.  Many  of  the  powers, 
such  as  Indra,  Sura,  Mithra,  and  the  like,  have  the 
same  name  in  both  systems.  Both  regard  fire  as  divine 
and  pay  reverence   to   the   same  intoxicating   drink, 


loo  The  Sp he T^e  of  Religion 

called  Soma  in  Sanskrit,  and  Homa  in  the  Avesta. 
But  in  the  course  of  their  development  they  came  to 
be  almost  mutually  exclusive.  The  gods  of  the  Vedas 
appear  in  the  Avesta  as  evil  spirits.  The  Hindu 
utterly  rejects  the  dualism  of  the  Persian,  and  the  dis- 
ciple of  Zoroaster  is  shocked  at  the  slight  regard  for 
morality  manifested  in  the  system  of  the  Hindu. 

Both  Judaism  and  Christianity  have  been  immensely 
affected  by  Zoroastrian  thought.  Their  doctrine  of 
angels  and  devils,  and  the  idea  that  good  and  evil  are 
equal  and  permanent  adversaries  in  this  world  so  often 
maintained  by  their  adherents,  are  probably  derived 
from  this  source.  **  Such  poems  as  Milton's  Paradise 
Lost,  and  Goethe's  Faust,''  says  James  Freeman  Clarke 
{Ten  Great  Religions,  vol.  i.,  p.  204)  "could  perhaps 
never  have  appeared  in  Christendom,  had  it  not  been 
for  the  influence  of  the  system  of  Zoroaster  on  Jewish, 
and,  through  Jewish,  on  Christian  thought."  But 
apart  from  this,  the  Persian  religion  has  undoubtedly 
contributed  more  than  any  other  so-called  heathen  re- 
ligion to  acquaint  the  world  with  the  great  thought 
that  the  kingdom  of  God  is  a  kingdom  of  righteous- 
ness, and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  every  man  to  work  for 
its  establishment  here  and  now. 

g.  Buddha's  Tripitaka. — About  five  hundred 
years  before  the  Christian  era  a  powerful  religious  sect 
arose  in  India  known  as  the  Buddhists,  and  their  bible 
came  to  be  called  the  Tripitaka,  which  literally  means 
the  three  baskets.  It  is  made  up  of  three  collections. 
The  first  consists  of  aphorisms  ;  the  second  of  rites  and 
ceremonies ;  and  the  third  of  philosophical  speculations. 
Although  Buddha,  the  founder  of  the  sect,  preached  for 
more  than  forty  years,  he  wrote  nothing  himself.  His 
chief  followers,  however,  immediately  after  his  death 


Bttddhas  Tripitaka  .        loi 

reduced  his  teachings  to  writing,  and  the  first  part  of 
the  Tripitaka  consists,  in  the  main,  of  his  discourses 
handed  down  by  word  of  mouth. 

The  Sanskrit  word  Buddha,  or  Booddha,  means  en- 
lightened. It  is  applied  to  any  man  who,  by  numerous 
good  works,  continued  through  countless  forms  of  exis- 
tence, has  become  released  from  the  bonds  of  existence 
and  who,  before  he  enters  into  Nirvana,  proclaims  to 
others  the  only  true  way  for  bringing  about  the  re- 
demption of  man. 

There  have  been  innumerable  Buddhas,  but  the 
Buddha  of  history,  it  is  now  admitted,  was  the  son  of  a 
wealthy  Indian  chieftain,  who  had  his  capital  at  Ka- 
pilavastu  near  the  foot  of  the  Himalayas.  His  birth 
occurred  about  550  B.C.,  and  one  of  his  early  names 
was  Gautama.  By  this  he  was  generally  known  until 
he  became  the  Enlightened  One  and  set  out  on  his  new 
mission.  Then  he  was  called  Gautama  Buddha,  just 
as  Jesus  came  to  be  called  Jesus  Christ.  Brought  up  in 
the  seclusion  and  luxury  of  an  Oriental  court,  he  saw  no 
signs  of  human  misery  till  his  twenty-ninth  year.  Then, 
as  he  went  among  the  people,  he  was  so  impressed  by 
the  universal  wretchedness  that  existed  in  the  world, 
regardless  of  sex,  caste,  or  condition,  that  he  resolved 
to  devote  his  life  to  finding  some  way  of  relief  from  it. 
He  at  once  abandoned  his  luxurious  home,  his  wife, 
and  infant  son,  and,  assuming  the  garb  of  a  mendicant, 
betook  himself  to  the  life  of  a  Brahmanical  recluse. 
But,  in  spite  of  all  his  efforts  to  discover  a  way  of  sal- 
vation for  himself  and  others  in  this  manner,  no  light 
came  to  him. 

Finally  he  plunged  into  the  forest  and  for  six  years 
gave  himself  up  to  extreme  austerities  and  self-mortifi- 
cation.    Still  he  did  not  find  the  deliverance  and  peace 


I02  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

that  lie  sought.  At  last  in  sheer  despair  he  flung  him- 
self down  under  a  bo-tree  and  there,  after  forty  days 
and  nights  of  fixed  contemplation,  enlightenment  came 
to  him.  He  had  the  beatific  vision  and  experienced 
the  inward  rest  of  Nirvana. 

The  bible  of  the  Buddhists  is  founded  on  what 
Buddha  called  the  Four  Sublime  Verities.  The  first 
asserts  that  suffering  exists  wherever  sentient  life  is 
found.  The  second  teaches  that  the  cause  of  suffering 
is  desire,  or  a  craving  for  life  and  pleasure.  The  third 
affirms  that  the  only  way  to  be  delivered  from  suffering 
is  by  the  extinction  or  ' '  blowing  out ' '  of  desire.  The 
fourth  maintains  that  the  only  way  to  cause  suffering 
to  cease  and  thus  reach  Nirvana  is  to  follow  the  Path 
of  Buddha,  or  the  Noble  Eightfold  Path.  This  path 
consists  of  right  views  (as  to  the  nature  and  cause  of 
suffering);  right  judgments;  right  words;  right  ac- 
tions; right  practice  (in  getting  a  livelihood);  right 
obedience  (to  the  law);  right  memory  (of  the  law); 
and  right  meditation. 

The  third  part  of  the  Tripitaka  attempts  to  give  an 
explanation  of  the  system.  The  immediate  cause  of 
suffering,  it  maintains,  is  birth.  For  if  we  were  not 
born,  we  should  not  be  exposed  to  death  or  any  of  the 
ills  of  life.  All  the  actions  and  affections  of  a  being  at 
any  one  stage  of  his  migrations  leave  their  impressions 
and  stains  upon  him,  and  determine  the  peculiar  form 
of  existence  he  must  next  assume.  When  a  man  dies 
he  is  immediately  born  into  a  new  shape  according  to 
his  merit  or  demerit  in  following  the  Eightfold  Path, 
and  his  shape  varies  from  the  lowest  or  most  disgusting 
animal  imaginable  up  to  a  divinity.  In  case  of  extreme 
demerit  he  may  descend  into  any  one  of  the  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty -six  Buddhistic  hells  in  the  centre  of  the 


Buddha  s  Tripitaka  103 


earth,  where  the  minimum  term  of  suffering  is  ten 
millions  of  years.  When  Buddha  attained  enlighten- 
ment under  the  bo-tree  he  was  able,  it  is  claimed,  to 
recall  all  of  his  previous  forms  of  existence  on  the 
earth,  in  the  air,  in  the  water,  in  hell,  and  in  heaven; 
and  a  great  part  of  the  Buddhistic  legendary  literature 
is  devoted  to  narrating  his  good  deeds  in  all  these 
states. 

Man,  according  to  the  Tripitaka,  is  a  combination  of 
five  bundles,  namely,  material  qualities,  sensations, 
abstract  ideas,  tendencies  of  mind,  and  mental  powers. 
Death  is  the  breaking  up  of  this  combination.  But 
there  is  a  force  called  Karma  or  destiny  which  is  left 
behind,  under  the  influence  of  which  these  bundles 
recombine  and  form  a  new  individual. 

In  his  discourses  Buddha  considers  mankind  as  di- 
vided into  two  classes  :  those  who  earnestly  devote  them- 
selves to  the  religious  Hfe,  and  those  who  cling  more 
or  less  tenaciously  to  the  world.  At  first  he  formed 
all  of  his  disciples  into  a  Brotherhood  and  gave  them 
ten  prohibitions  or  commandments  for  their  observance. 
But  later  as  his  followers  increased  in  numbers  he 
exempted  the  laymen  from  a  portion  of  these  regu- 
lations. The  first  five  of  the  commandments  which 
are  of  universal  obligation  are  the  following  :  Thou 
Shalt  not  kill  (even  the  humblest  insect);  thou  shalt 
not  steal ;  thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery  ;  thou  shalt 
not  lie  (or  indulge  in  any  form  of  harsh  language); 
thou  shalt  not  use  strong  drink. 

The  remaining  five,  which  are  for  the  special  guid- 
ance of  the  Brotherhood,  require  them  to  abstain  from 
taking  food  out  of  season,  that  is,  after  midday,  and 
from  looking  at  dances  or  plays  ;  from  listening  to 
songs  or  music ;  from  using  any  kind  of  perfumery 


I04  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

and  from  wearing  ornaments  ;  from  having  a  large  mat 
or  quilt  upon  which  to  sleep  ;  and  from  receiving  gold 
or  silver. 

For  those  who  devoted  themselves  exclusively  to 
the  religious  life  twelve  other  observances  of  a  much 
severer  kind  are  enjoined.  Among  others,  that  they 
are  to  dress  only  in  rags  sewed  together  with  their  own 
hands  and  a  yellow  cloak  made  in  the  same  way  to 
throw  over  their  shoulders ;  to  eat  only  food  given  in 
charity  and  but  once  a  day ;  to  live  in  the  jungle  and 
to  have  no  roof  but  the  foliage  of  the  trees ;  never  to 
lie  down  when  they  sleep  and  never  to  change  the 
position  of  their  mat  when  once  spread  ;  and,  lastly,  to 
go  monthly  to  a  cemetery  to  meditate  on  the  vanity 
of  life. 

In  addition  to  these  prohibitions  and  observances  the 
cultivation  of  certain  positive  virtues  as  works  of  super- 
erogation is  enjoined  by  the  Tripitaka.  Respect  for 
parents,  charity  for  others,  and  solicitude  for  the  wel- 
fare of  every  living  thing  are  carried  by  the  teachings 
of  the  Buddhists  to  the  greatest  extreme.  Their  sym- 
pathy for  sorrowing  humanity  knows  no  bounds.  It  is 
probably  this  feature  of  the  Buddhistic  religion  rather 
than  any  other  that  has  caused  it  to  spread  so  exten- 
sively over  the  Oriental  world.  While  it  now  has  little 
influence  in  India  proper,  it  holds  almost  exclusive 
sway  in  Ceylon,  Burma,  Siam,  Nepaul,  and  Thibet 
(where  it  is  called  Lamaism),  rivals  the  adherents  of 
Confucius  in  China,  largely  dominates  in  Korea  and 
Japan,  and  extends  as  far  north  as  Siberia  and  Lap- 
land. Over  a  third  of  the  human  race,  it  is  alleged  by 
many,  is  under  its  sway.  But  in  this  estimate  all  the 
Chinese  and  Japanese  are  classed  as  Buddhists. 

Buddhism,  as  James  Freeman  Clarke  points  out,  is 


Buddha  s  Tripitaka  105 

Romanistic  in  its  form,  but  Protestant  in  its  spirit.  The 
first  Catholic  missionaries  were  amazed  at  the  likeness 
between  the  Buddhistic  rites  and  ceremonies  and  their 
own.  For  the  central  object  in  a  Buddhist  temple  is 
an  image  of  the  Buddha  and  a  shrine  containing  his 
relics.  Here  flowers,  fruit,  and  incense  are  daily  of- 
fered in  great  profusion,  and  frequents  processions  are 
made  with  the  singing  of  hymns.  But  fundamentally 
Buddhism  is  a  protest  against  the  doctrine  that  salva- 
tion is  to  be  secured  by  following  the  prescriptions  of  a 
priestly  caste.  It  is  thus  made  purely  a  matter  of  the 
individual. 

In  ancient  India  the  whole  life  of  a  Brahman  was  divi- 
ded into  four  stages  :  the  school,  the  household,  the 
forest,  and  the  solitude.  Up  to  the  age  of  twenty-seven 
he  was  a  student  under  the  constant  direction  and  con- 
trol of  a  Guru.  After  that  age  had  been  reached,  he  was 
required  to  marry,  to  found  a  household,  and  to  perform 
faithfully  all  the  rites  and  ceremonies  prescribed  in  the 
Vedas.  When  he  had  lived  long  enough  to  see  his 
children's  children,  he  was  expected  to  relinquish  his 
social  and  religious  duties.  He  left  his  home  and  re- 
tired to  the  solitude  of  the  forest.  There  he  devoted 
himself  without  interruption  to  meditation  upon  the 
Upanishads,  and  sought  in  every  way  rest  and  peace  by 
absorption  in  the  divine. 

Buddha  by  his  experiences  in  this  direction  became 
convinced  that  the  preparatory  stages  of  student  and 
married  life  were  of  no  avail,  and  he  started  out  by  urg- 
ing every  man  to  enter  at  once  upon  the  search  for  the 
higher  life.  As  Max  Miiller  in  describing  the  rise  of 
Buddhism  has  well  said  :  "The  first  and  critical  step 
consisted  in  Buddha's  opening  the  doors  of  a  forest  life 
to  all  who  wished  to  enter,  whatever  their  age,  what- 


io6  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

ever  their  caste, "  and  he  rightly  emphasizes  the  fact 
that,  ' '  this  leaving  of  the  world  before  a  man  had 
performed  the  duties  of  a  student  and  of  a  father  of  a 
family  was  the  great  offence  of  Buddhism  in  the  eyes 
of  the  Brahmans;  for  it  was  that  which  deprived  the 
Brahmans  of  their  exclusive  social  position  as  teachers, 
as  priests,  as  guides  and  counsellors.  In  this  sense 
Buddha  may  be  said  to  have  been  a  heretic  and  to  have 
rejected  the  system  of  caste,  the  authority  of  the  Veda, 
and  the  whole  educational  and  sacrificial  system  as  based 
on  the  Veda  ' '  ( The  Nineteenth  Century,  vol.  33,  p.  778). 

Still  Buddhism  was  in  no  sense  a  new  religion  inde- 
pendent of  Brahmanism.  For  it  was  chiefly  derived 
from  it  and  would  be  quite  inconceivable  without  it. 
Both  Buddhism  and  Brahmanism  seek  to  escape  from 
the  vicissitudes  of  time  by  gaining  the  absolute  rest  of 
eternity.  But  the  latter  attempts  to  do  this  by  pas- 
sive reception,  the  former  by  earnest  individual  effort. 
Brahmanism  knows  only  absolute  eternal  spirit  and 
calls  this  world  an  illusion.  Buddhism  knows  this 
world  only  and  calls  the  next,  being  so  unlike  this,  a 
nullity. 

Much  discussion  has  arisen  among  scholars  as  to 
what  the  Buddhistic  doctrine  of  Nirvana,  of  heaven, 
really  signifies.  Such  writers  as  Max  Miiller,  Schmidt, 
and  others  make  it  equivalent  to  annihilation,  but 
many  hold  that  it  is  nothing,  only  in  the  sense  that  it 
is  a  state  or  condition  so  opposite  to  all  that  we  know- 
in  this  life,  and  so  exalted  above  our  present  powers  to 
conceive,  that  it  is  the  same  as  nothing  to  us  now. 
Would  human  nature  ever  actually  accept  the  former 
view  and  earnestly  strive  to  bring  about  its  perfect 
realization?  Is  it  likely  that  millions  of  men  and 
women  would  spend  their  lives  urging  others  to  right 


The  Bible  of  the  Jews  107 

conduct  in  order  to  attain  happiness  or  Nirvana  here- 
after, if  the  absolute  annihilation  of  the  self  were  to  be 
the  inevitable  result  ? 

Buddhism  emphasizes  two  great  truths,  namely,  that 
religion  is  a  rational  matter,  and  that  it  is  designed  for 
all  mankind.  It  appeals  to  human  reason  and  has 
made  its  progress  by  preaching  and  not  by  force.  It 
respects  all  men  and  has  unbounded  charity  for  all.  It 
seeks  to  make  known  its  gospel  to  every  creature. 
Buddha  says  in  so  many  words,  "  My  law  is  a  law  of 
grace  for  all." 

In  a  certain  sense,  however,  Buddhism  is  a  religion 
without  a  God.  For  it  makes  him  as  well  as  the  good 
and  heaven  equivalent  to  nothing,  at  least  in  this 
present  life.  It  leaves  no  room  for  the  principle  of 
love  to  come  in  either  for  God  or  for  man.  It  con- 
tributes to  religion  the  great  doctrine  of  rewards  and 
punishments,  the  reign  of  law,  the  equality  of  man, 
pity  for  human  sorrow,  self-denial,  charity,  and  self- 
control.  But  it  must  radically  change  its  conception 
of  the  relation  of  man  to  God  and  fully  recognize  that 
they  are  inseparable  realities,  capable  of  living  here 
and  now  in  constant  and  joyful  accord,  before  it  will 
be  worthy  of  a  high  place  among  the  forces  that  make 
for  righteousness  of  life  in  our  day. 

h.  The  Bible  of  the  Jews.  — The  bible  of  the 
ancient  Jews  at  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  ex- 
isted in  two  forms,  the  Palestinian  collection  and  the 
Septuagint.  The  former  was  written  in  Hebrew  and 
the  latter  in  Greek.  The  Hebrew  bible  was  divided 
into  three  parts,  viz..  The  Law,  The  Prophets,  and 
The  Psalms.  The  Law  comprised  the  first  five  books, 
which  were  known  as  "The  Law  of  Moses."  This 
part  the  Jews  considered  to  be  the  oldest  of  their  Scrip- 


io8  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

tures,  and  much  more  sacred  and  authoritative  than 
any  other  portion.  They  said  that  God  spake  face  to 
face  with  Moses,  but  less  distinctly  and  positively  to 
other  holy  men. 

The  Prophets  began  with  Joshua  and  ended  with 
Malachi.  This  division  included  such  books  as  Judges 
and  Kings  as  well  as  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  probably 
because  it  was  supposed  that  the  former  were  written 
by  prophets  as  truly  as  the  latter.  The  third  division 
was  often  called  The  Writings.  The  Psalms  was 
the  initial  book  of  the  collection.  It  also  included 
such  books  as  Job,  Ruth,  and  lyamentations,  and  ended 
with  Chronicles.  The  writings  in  this  group  were 
much  less  esteemed  by  the  Jews  than  those  in  the 
groups  preceding,  and  some  of  them  were  supposed  to 
have  but  a  small  measure  of  inspiration.  The  right  of 
a  few  of  them  to  be  in  the  collection  at  all  was  much 
disputed  among  the  Rabbis. 

The  Septuagint  had  a  different  grouping  of  the 
books,  and  did  not  attempt  to  follow  the  chronological 
order.  It  arranged  the  books  according  to  the  subjects 
treated,  putting  the  historical  books  first,  the  poetical 
next,  and  the  prophetical  last.  The  Septuagint  also 
added  several  books  not  found  in  the  Hebrew  bible. 
The  English  bible  follows  the  order  of  the  Septuagint 
and  so  does  the  Latin  Vulgate.  It  is  the  Septuagint 
that  is  followed  here. 

The  first  book,  called  Genesis,  opens  with  a  passage 
of  almost  unparalleled  sublimity  :  "In  the  beginning 
God  (Elohim)  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth,  and 
the  earth  was  without  form  and  void  ;  and  darkness 
was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep.  And  the  Spirit  of  God 
moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters,  and  God  said,  Let 
there  be  light,  and  there  w^as  light." 


The  Bible  of  the  Jews  109 

Soon  there  is  a  rapid  descent  from  the  dignity  of  this 
remarkable  introduction  and  the  stories  that  follow  for 
some  chapters  are  in  many  respects  on  a  par  with  the 
mythologies  of  the  other  nations  of  antiquity.  Elohim 
is  represented  as  bringing  the  different  objects  on  the 
earth  into  being  by  his  mere  fiat,  accomplishing  the 
task  in  six  days  and  resting  on  the  seventh. 

To  the  man  whom  he  had  made  out  of  "  the  dust  of 
the  ground,"  he  gave  dominion  over  all  the  earth  and 
put  him  in  a  beautiful  garden,  having  furnished  him 
with  a  companion  and  helpmeet  constructed  out  of  a 
rib  taken  from  his  own  body  while  he  slept.  A  talking 
serpent  soon  beguiled  the  pair  into  taking  some  fruit 
from  a  tree  in  the  garden  that  God  had  forbidden  them 
to  touch.  The  consequence  was  that  when  ''they 
heard  the  voice  of  the  Lord  God  walking  in  the  garden 
in  the  cool  of  the  day  "  they  attempted  to  hide  them- 
selves from  his  presence.  But  he  called  them  to  him 
and  insisted  upon  knowing  what  had  happened. 

On  hearing  the  account  of  their  disobedience  he  im- 
mediately cursed  the  serpent  and  drove  the  man  and 
his  wife  forever  out  of  the  garden,  saying  to  the  woman, 
' '  I  will  greatly  multiply  thy  sorrow  and  thy  concep- 
tion ;  in  sorrow  shalt  thou  bring  forth  children  ;  and 
thy  desire  shall  be  to  thy  husband  and  he  shall  rule 
over  thee."  And  to  Adam  he  said,  "Because  thou 
hast  hearkened  unto  the  voice  of  thy  wife  and  hast 
eaten  of  the  tree  of  which  I  commanded  thee,  saying, 
Thou  shalt  not  eat  of  it ;  cursed  is  the  ground  for  thy 
sake  ;  in  sorrow  shalt  thou  eat  of  it  all  the  days  of  thy 
life.  Thorns  also  and  thistles  shall  it  bring  forth  to 
thee  ;  and  thou  shalt  eat  the  herb  of  the  field.  In  the 
sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread,  till  thou  return 
unto   the  ground."     Notwithstanding  their  hard  lot 


1 1  o  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

the  human  race  rapidly  increased  and  multiplied 
according  to  the  account,  Adam  himself  living  and  be- 
getting children  till  he  was  nine  hundred  and  thirty 
years  old,  while  some  of  his  posterity  lived  to  be  still 
older. 

But  human  wickedness  more  than  kept  pace  with 
the  increase  in  numbers.  Soon  "  it  repented  Jehovah 
(Yahveh)  that  he  had  made  man  on  the  earth"  and 
he  therefore  resolved  to  destroy  everything  upon  its 
surface,  ' '  both  man  and  beast  and  the  creeping  thing, 
and  the  fowl  of  the  air,"  with  a  great  flood.  But  one 
man,  Noah,  "  found  grace  in  the  eyes  of  Jehovah  "  and 
he  was  commanded  to  build  a  great  ark  and  bring  into 
it  his  wife  and  his  sons  with  their  wives,  together  with 
two  of  every  sort  of  "every  living  thing  of  all  flesh." 
This  he  did  and  when  the  terrible  flood  came,  lasting 
a  hundred  and  fifty  days,  the  ark  and  its  contents 
alone  survived  the  universal  ruin. 

Then  God  blessed  Noah  and  his  sons  and  com- 
manded them  to  increase  and  multiply  and  replenish  the 
earth  ;  and  he  made  a  covenant  with  them,  setting  his 
bow  in  the  cloud  as  a  token  of  his  everlasting  love  and 
favor  and  as  a  pledge  that  ' '  the  waters  shall  no  more 
become  a  flood  to  destroy  all  flesh."  It  is  stated  that 
Noah  lived  after  the  flood  three  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
dying  at  the  age  of  nine  hundred  and  fifty.  No  sooner, 
however,  had  the  earth  been  repeopled  than  human  sin 
and  arrogance  again  brought  things  to  a  climax.  An 
attempt  was  made  to  build  "  a  tower  whose  top  should 
reach  unto  heaven."  As  soon  as  the  rumors  of  this 
endeavor  of  men  to  become  gods  and  set  up  for  them- 
selves reached  Jehovah,  he  at  once  "  came  down  to  see 
the  city  and  the  tower,  which  the  children  of  men 
builded."     The  result  was  that  he  immediately  cut 


The  Bible  of  the  Jews  \  1 1 


short  the  project  by  confounding  their  language,  "  and 
so  Jehovah  scattered  them  abroad  from  thence  upon 
the  face  of  all  the  earth." 

The  next  great  event  described  in  this  history  is  the 
call  of  Abraham,  who  leaves  his  native  city  of  Ur  and 
follows  the  guidance  of  Jehovah  into  anew  and  strange 
land.  There  he  becomes  the  founder  of  a  great  nation 
and  the  father  of  the  faithful  in  all  time.  Twice  before 
had  Jehovah  entered  into  covenant  with  mankind— 
with  Adam  and  with  Noah— and  twice  it  had  been 
broken.  Now  ''a  chosen  people  is  raised  up  through 
whom  all  the  families  of  the  earth  are  blessed." 

Two  events  in  the  life  of  Abraham  are  especially  to 
be  noted— his  plea  with  Jehovah  for  the  doomed  cities 
of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  and  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac. 
The  former  is  full  of  naive  dignity  and  moral  earnest- 
ness. Jehovah,  having  heard  of  the  corruption  of  Sodom, 
accompanied  by  two  angels  comes  down  to  inquire  into 
the  case.  He  first  pays  a  visit  to  Abraham  and  takes  a 
repast  with  him.  Then  he  sends  the  angels  to  destroy 
the  city,  but  after  they  have  gone  Abraham  intercedes 
with  Jehovah  to  spare  the  place,  knowing  that  his  kins- 
man I^ot  dwells  in  it. 

The  narrative  runs  as  follows :  ' '  And  Abraham  drew 
near  and  said,  Wilt  thou  consume  the  righteous  with 
the  wicked  ?  Perhaps  there  are  fifty  righteous  men 
within  the  city.  Wilt  thou  consume  and  not  spare  the 
place  for  the  fifty  righteous  who  are  therein  ?  That  be 
far  from  thee  to  do  after  this  manner,  to  slay  the  righteous 
with  the  wicked ;  that  so  the  righteous  should  be 
as  the  wicked  ;  that  be  far  from  thee ;  shall  not  the 
Judge  of  all  the  earth  do  right  ?  And  Jehovah  said.  If 
I  find  in  Sodom  fifty  righteous,  then  I  will  spare  all  the 
place  for  their  sake.     And  Abraham  answered  and  said: 


1 1 2  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

My  Lord,  I  who  am  dust  and  ashes  have  taken  upon 
me  to  speak  to  thee  ;  there  may  perhaps  lack  five  of  the 
fifty  righteous  ;  wilt  thou  destroy  all  the  city  for  lack  of 
five  ?  And  he  said,  I  will  not  destroy  it  if  I  find  there 
forty  and  five. 

'  'And  he  spake  unto  him  yet  again,  and  said,  Perhaps 
there  shall  be  forty  found  there.  And  he  said,  I  will 
not  do  it  for  the  forty's  sake.  And  he  said,  O  let  not 
my  lyord  be  angry,  and  I  will  speak  ;  perhaps  there  shall 
thirty  be  found  there.  And  he  said,  I  will  not  do  it  if 
I  find  thirty  there.  And  he  said,  Behold  now,  my  Lord, 
I  have  taken  upon  me  to  speak  to  thee  ;  perhaps  there 
shall  be  twenty  found  there.  And  he  said,  I  will  not 
destroy  it  for  the  twenty's  sake.  And  he  said,  O 
let  not  my  Lord  be  angry,  and  I  will  speak  yet  but  once  ; 
perhaps  ten  shall  be  found  there.  And  he  said,  I  will 
not  destroy  it  for  the  ten's  sake.  And  Jehovah  went 
his  way  as  soon  as  he  had  left  communing  with  Abraham 
and  Abraham  returned  unto  his  place"     (Gen.    xviii. 

23-33)- 

The  ten  righteous  men  could  not  be  found  and  the 
destruction  of  the  city  was  complete.  Lot  alone  escap- 
ing with  his  wife  and  daughters.  But  the  wife  looked 
back  and  was  turned  into  a  pillar  of  salt. 

When  Abraham  and  Sarah  his  wife  were  in  their  ex- 
treme old  age,  Isaac,  the  long-promised  seed,  was  born. 
But  straightway  the  Lord  ordered  Abraham  to  offer  him 
as  a  sacrifice  on  Mount  Moriah.  This  he  proceeded 
to  do  until  he  was  stayed  by  divine  interposition,  and 
a  ram  was  substituted  in  Isaac's  place. 

To  the  mind  of  Abraham,  according  to  these  accounts, 
Jehovah  was  "The  Most  High."  He  talked  with 
Abraham  face  to  face  and  was  his  personal  protector 
and  friend.     He  agreed  to  give  him  and  his  posterity 


The  Bible  of  the  Jews  1 1 3 

the  land  of  Canaan,  and  in  this  promise  Abraham  had 
implicit  faith.  Abraham's  belief  in  Jehovah  did  not 
exclude  belief  in  other  gods,  but  they  were  all  inferior 
to  his  God.  While  he  thought  of  Jehovah  as  almighty, 
he  did  not  regard  him  as  omniscient  or  omnipresent. 
When  the  rumors  concerning  the  sinfulness  of  Sodom 
began  to  circulate,  Jehovah  had  to  come  down  to  ascer- 
tain whether  they  were  correct  or  not.  And  he  had 
doubts  about  the  faith  of  Abraham,  so  he  ordered  him  to 
sacrifice  his  son  Isaac. 

Joseph,  one  of  the  descendants  of  Abraham,  owing 
to  his  skill  in  interpreting  dreams  rose  to  high  dignity 
and  honor  in  the  court  of  Egypt,  and  it  was  through 
his  agency  that  the  entire  Israeli tish  family  in  a  time 
of  famine  was  allowed  to  settle  in  the  rich  pasture 
lands  in  the  northern  part  of  that  country.  Genesis 
closes  with  an  account  of  the  death  of  Joseph  and  his 
assertion  to  his  brethren  that  * '  Jehovah  will  surely 
visit  you  and  bring  you  out  of  this  land  unto  the  land 
which  he  swore  to  Abraham,  to  Isaac,  and  to  Jacob." 

Exodus  tells  us  that  the  rapid  increase  of  this  "chosen 
people ' '  in  numbers  and  wealth  soon  began  to  alarm 
the  ruler  of  the  Egyptians  and  he  resolved  to  despoil 
them  of  their  possessions  and  reduce  them  to  the  class 
of  slaves.  It  also  tells  us  how,  in  this  emergency, 
Moses  was  raised  up  to  be  their  leader  and  to  guide 
them  back  into  the  land  that  Jehovah  had  promised  to 
their  fathers.  Early  adopted  by  the  daughter  of  Pha- 
raoh, Moses  had  been  thoroughly  educated  in  all  the 
learning  of  the  Egyptian  priesthood  and  for  many 
years  had  enjoyed  all  the  honors  and  privileges  of  a 
member  of  the  royal  court.  But  his  heart  went  out 
toward  his  suffering  brethren.  Because  of  some  act  of 
cruelty  he  smote  to  the  ground  an  overseer  who  was  in 


114  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

charge  of  some  Jewish  slaves.  This  made  him  an  exile 
and  it  was  while  living  as  a  shepherd  in  Arabia  Petrea 
that  ' '  the  angel  of  the  Lord  appeared  unto  him  in  a 
flame  of  fire  out  of  the  midst  of  a  bush.  .  .  . 
The  bush  burned  with  fire  and  the  bush  was  not  con- 
sumed. .  .  .  God  called  unto  him  out  of  the 
midst  of  the  bush  and  said,  Moses,  Moses.  And  he 
said,  Here  am  I."  As  a  result  of  the  extended  inter- 
view that  followed  Moses  was  commissioned  to  go  to 
Pharaoh  and  bring  forth  the  chosen  people  out  of 
Egypt  ''unto  a  good  land  and  a  large,  unto  a  land 
flowing  with  milk  and  honey." 

To  assure  Moses  of  his  continued  presence  in  the 
carrying  out  of  this  undertaking,  Jehovah  directed  him 
to  cast  his  shepherd's  rod  upon  the  ground  and  imme- 
diately it  became  a  serpent.  *  *  And  Jehovah  said  unto 
Moses,  Put  forth  thy  hand  and  take  it  by  the  tail. 
And  he  put  forth  his  hand  and  caught  it,  and  it  be- 
came a  rod  in  his  hand.  That  they  may  believe  that 
Jehovah  the  God  of  their  fathers,  the  God  of  Abraham, 
the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob,  hath  appeared 
unto  thee."  In  the  same  way  Jehovah  changed  the 
hand  of  Moses  instanter  into  a  leprous  hand  as  white  as 
snow,  and  back  again  into  a  hand  of  natural  flesh. 

With  his  rod  Moses  brought  many  deadly  plagues 
upon  Kg3Tt-  With  it  he  parted  the  Red  Sea  and  let 
the  chosen  people  pass  through  on  dry  land  to  the 
number  of  "  about  six  hundred  thousand  on  foot  that 
were  men,  besides  children."  With  it  he  caused  the 
waters  of  the  sea  to  return  and  engulf  the  pursuing 
hosts  of  Pharaoh  so  that  ''there  remained  not  so 
much  as  one  of  them."  He  smote  the  rock  in  Horeb 
with  it  and  the  water  gushed  out  in  great  abundance, 
and  he  repeatedly  gave  instantaneous  success  to   the 


The  Bible  of  the  Jews  115 

armies  of  Israel  against  enormous  odds  by  raising  it 
aloft. 

When  the  Children  of  Israel  arrived  at  Mount  Sinai, 
Jehovah  came  down  upon  the  top  of  the  mount,  and 
amid  great  "thunderings  and  the  lightnings  and  the 
noise  of  the  trumpet  "  he  called  Moses  up  to  the  top  of 
the  mount,  and  when  he  had  made  an  end  of  commun- 
ing with  him  he  gave  him  "two  tables  of  testimony, 
tables  of  stone,  written  with  the  finger  of  God."  When 
Moses  came  down  from  the  mount  he  showed  to  the 
people  the  Ten  Commandments  on  these  tables,  and 
proclaimed  them  as  the  law  of  the  land. 

The  rest  of  Exodus  from  the  twentieth  chapter  con- 
taining these  commandments,  is  taken  up  with  a  de- 
scription of  the  efforts  of  Moses  to  organize  the  people 
into  a  nation  under  a  divinely  prescribed  system  of  cere- 
monial laws. 

Leviticus  contains  numerous  special  laws,  chiefly 
those  relating  to  public  worship,  festivals,  and  similar 
topics. 

Numbers  gives  a  supplement  to  the  laws  and  tells  of 
the  weary  march  through  the  desert  and  the  beginning 
of  the  conquest  of  Canaan. 

In  Deuteronomy  Moses,  as  an  old  man  near  his  end, 
reminds  the  people  of  the  experiences  they  have  gone 
through,  of  the  laws  they  have  received,  and  exhorts 
them  to  follow  and  obey  Jehovah. 

In  the  book  of  Joshua  we  read  of  the  conquest  and 
partition  of  Canaan  and  of  the  farewell  exhortation  and 
death  of  Joshua. 

Judges  describes  the  anarchy  and  apostasy  that  soon 
followed.  It  tells  of  the  consequent  subjugation  of  the 
chosen  people  b}^  their  heathen  neighbors  and  the  ex- 
ploits of  the  heroes  that  were  raised  up  to  rescue  them. 


1 1 6  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

The  two  books  of  Samuel  give  us  an  account  of  Sam- 
uel's life  as  a  prophet  and  judge,  and  the  history  of 
Saul  and  David. 

In  the  books  of  Kings  we  read  of  the  death  of  David, 
the  brilliant  reign  of  Solomon,  the  decline  of  the  king- 
dom, the  revolt  of  the  ten  tribes,  their  practical  anni- 
hilation, the  carrying  away  into  captivity  of  the  greater 
part  of  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  and  the  fate  of  the  miser- 
able remnant.  At  the  same  time  the  books  describe  the 
treatment  of  the  noble  prophets  who  kept  on  testifying 
for  God  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  wicked  kings  and 
the  indifference  of  a  degenerate  people. 

Chronicles  supplements  this  history  and  Ruth  is  in- 
troduced as  an  episode  in  the  time  of  the  Judges,  telling 
with  exquisite  grace  how  Ruth  the  Moabitess  came  to 
marry  Boaz,  the  great-grandfather  of  David. 

Ezra  and  Nehemiah  close  the  strictly  historical  part 
by  describing  the  return  of  the  chosen  people  from  their 
foreign  exile,  the  rebuilding  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  res- 
toration of  the  temple  worship.  The  book  of  Esther  re- 
cords the  wonderful  escape  of  the  Jews  from  annihilation 
while  held  in  captivity  by  their  Persian  conquerors. 

The  book  of  Job  is  a  philosophical  work  of  great 
beauty  of  diction,  abounding  in  profound  thoughts,  es- 
pecially upon  the  origin  of  evil  and  the  mission  of 
suffering,  and  inculcating  the  duty  of  absolute  resig- 
nation to  God's  mysterious  will. 

The  Psalms  are  a  collection  of  devotional  lyrics  much 
prized  by  the  Jews.     The  first  one  reads  as  follows  : 

'*  I.  Blessed  is  the  man  that  walketh  not  in  the 
counsel  of  the  ungodly,  nor  standeth  in  the  way  of 
sinners,  nor  sitteth  in  the  seat  of  the  scornful. 

"2.  But  his  delight  is  in  the  law  of  the  Lord  ;  and 
in  his  law  doth  he  meditate  day  and  night. 


The  Bible  of  the  Jews  1 1 7 

"  3.  And  he  shall  be  like  a  tree  planted  by  the  rivers 
of  water,  that  bringeth  forth  his  fruit  in  his  season  ;  his 
leaf  also  shall  not  wither  ;  and  whatsoever  he  doeth 
shall  prosper. 

*'  4.  The  ungodly  are  not  so  :  but  are  like  the  chaff 
which  the  wind  driveth  awa3^ 

"5.  Therefore  the  ungodly  shall  not  stand  in  the 
judgment,  nor  sinners  in  the  congregation  of  the 
righteous. 

"6.  For  the  Lord  knoweth  the  way  of  the  righteous : 
but  the  way  of  the  ungodly  shall  perish." 

The  twenty-third  Psalm  is  perhaps  the  gem  of  the 
collection,  and  consists  of  the  following  verses  : 

"  I.  The  Lord  is  my  shepherd  ;  I  shall  not  want. 

"2.  He  maketh  me  to  lie  down  in  green  pastures: 
he  leadeth  me  beside  the  still  waters. 

"3.  He  restoreth  my  soul :  he  leadeth  me  in  the 
paths  of  righteousness  for  his  name's  sake. 

"  4.  Yea,  though  I  walk  through  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death,  I  will  fear  no  evil  :  for  thou  art  with 
me  ;  thy  rod  and  thy  staff  they  comfort  me. 

"  5.  Thou  preparest  a  table  before  me  in  the  presence 
of  mine  enemies  :  thou  anointest  my  head  with  oil ;  my 
cup  runneth  over. 

* '  6.  Surely  goodness  and  mercy  shall  follow  me  all 
the  days  of  my  life  :  and  I  will  dwell  in  the  house  of 
the  Lord  for  ever. ' ' 

The  Proverbs  is  a  book  of  wise  maxims  and  short 
discourses  on  more  or  less  practical  affairs.  Ecclesiastes 
is  an  eloquent  wail  over  the  transitoriness  of  all  earthly 
things,  and  the  Song  of  Solomon  is  an  amatory  idyl,  the 
mission  of  which  it  is  hard  to  explain.  The  Jews  had  a 
rule  that  no  one  should  read  it  till  he  was  over  thirty,  and 
the  utility  of  reading  it  at  all  was  often  questioned. 


I T  8  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

The  remaining  books  of  the  bible  of  the  Jews  from 
Isaiah  to  Malachi  are  prophetic  in  their  character. 
They  take  the  religious  experiences  and  ideas  that  the 
historical  books  make  known  to  us,  and  show  how  they 
ought  to  inspire  the  people  with  unremitting  zeal  in 
their  conflict  with  unbelief  and  apostasy.  They  also 
point  out  how  those  who  are  faithful  to  Jehovah  ought 
to  look  forward  with  high  anticipation  for  the  future. 
For  deep  religious  feeling  and  sublime  conceptions  of 
God,  for  beautiful  diction  and  rich  imagery,  many  of 
these  books  are  unsurpassed.  As  a  whole  they  reveal 
the  nation's  heart  and  purpose  in  a  way  that  is  unique 
in  the  history  of  any  race  or  people.  As  one  of  the 
best  samples  of  this  kind  of  literature  in  the  Old 
Testament  we  may  take  the  fifty-fifth  chapter  of 
Isaiah  : 

"  I.  Ho,  every  one  that  thirsteth,  come  ye  to  the 
waters,  and  he  that  hath  no  money  ;  come  ye,  buy  and 
eat ;  yea,  come,  buy  wine  and  milk  without  money, 
and  without  price. 

"  2 .  Wherefore  do  ye  spend  money  for  that  which  is 
not  bread?  and  your  labour  for  that  which  satisfieth 
not?  Hearken  diligently  unto  me,  and  eat  ye  that 
which  is  good,  and  let  your  soul  delight  itself  in 
fatness. 

"  3.  Incline  your  ear,  and  come  unto  me  :  hear,  and 
your  soul  shall  live  ;  and  I  will  make  an  everlasting 
covenant  with  you,  even  the  sure  mercies  of  David. 

"  4.  Behold,  I  have  given  him  for  a  witness  to  the 
people,  a  leader  and  commander  to  the  people. 

"5.  Behold,  thou  shalt  call  a  nation  that  thou 
knowest  not ;  and  nations  that  knew  not  thee  shall 
run  unto  thee,  because  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  for 
the  Holy  One  of  Israel ;  for  he  hath  glorified  thee. 


The  Bible  of  the  Jews  119 

''  6.  Seek  ye  the  Lord  while  he  may  be  found,  call 
ye  upon  him  while  he  is  near. 

"7.  Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way,  and  the  un- 
righteous man  his  thoughts ;  and  let  him  return  unto 
the  Lord,  and  he  will  have  mercy  upon  him :  and  to 
our  God,  for  he  will  abundantly  pardon. 

"  8.  For  my  thoughts  are  not  your  thoughts,  neither 
are  your  ways  my  ways,  saith  the  Lord. 

"  9.  For  as  the  heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth, 
so  are  my  ways  higher  than  your  ways,  and  my 
thoughts  than  your  thoughts. 

"  10.  For  as  the  rain  cometh  down,  and  the  snow, 
from  heaven,  and  returneth  not  thither,  but  watereth 
the  earth,  and  maketh  it  bring  forth  and  bud,  that  it 
may  give  seed  to  the  sower,  and  bread  to  the  eater  ; 

"11.  So  shall  my  word  be  that  goeth  forth  out  of 
my  mouth  ;  it  shall  not  return  unto  me  void ;  but  it 
shall  accomplish  that  which  I  please,  and  it  shall  pros- 
per in  the  thing  whereto  I  sent  it. 

"12.  For  ye  shall  go  out  with  joy,  and  be  led  forth 
with  peace:  the  mountains  and  the  hills  shall  break 
forth  before  you  into  singing,  and  all  the  trees  of  the 
field  shall  clap  their  hands. 

"13.  Instead  of  the  thorn  shall  come  up  the  fir  tree, 
and  instead  of  the  brier  shall  come  up  the  myrtle  tree  : 
and  it  shall  be  to  the  Lord  for  a  name,  for  an  everlast- 
ing sign  that  shall  not  be  cut  off." 

In  recent  years  the  several  books  of  this  Hebrew 
bible  have  been  studied  as  to  their  origin  and  composi- 
tion with  scrupulous  care  by  a  great  number  of  eminent 
scholars  such  as  Eichhorn,  Graf,  Bleek,"  Wellhausen, 
and  Holzinger  in  Germany  ;  Kuenen  and  his  followers 
in  Holland  ;  Cheyne  and  Driver  in  England  ;  Robertson 
Smith  and  George  Adam  Smith  in  Scotland  ;  and  Toy, 


1 20  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

Briggs,  Bacon,  Kent,  and  Mitchell  in  America.  The 
result  is  that  few,  if  any,  investigators  in  our  day  disa- 
gree with  the  opinion  that  what  we  call  the  Old  Testa- 
ment was  not  originally  written  as  we  now  have  it,  but 
is  the  work  of  a  great  number  of  prophets,  and  priests, 
and  sages,  extending  over  a  long  period  of  time. 
"Some  of  the  oldest  poems  of  the  Old  Testament," 
says  Professor  Kent,  ' '  go  back  to  the  days  of  the 
Judges,  about  B.C.  1200,  and  certain  of  the  Psalms  and 
the  Book  of  Daniel  are  in  all  probabilit}^  later  than 
B.C.  200." 

Almost  every  book  in  this  Hebrew  bible  is  now  re- 
garded as  a  conglomerate  made  up  of  material  taken 
from  early  and  late  sources,  joined  together  by  faithful 
copyists  and  editors,  who  were  interested  in  preserving 
them  for  future  times.  In  other  words,  it  is  now  recog- 
nized that  the  history  of  the  bible  of  the  Hebrews  is 
like  that  of  other  ancient  sacred  books.  It  began  with 
the  recording  of  the  songs  and  legends  of  the  people 
and  then  gradually  received  other  additions  by  way  of 
prophetic  utterances  and  ceremonial  laws,  till  it  finally 
crystallized  into  its  present  form  and  came  to  be  re- 
garded as  an  unalterable  rule  of  faith  and  practice. 

Genesis,  the  first  book  of  the  Old  Testament,  is  now 
held  to  be  made  up  of  two  great  compilations.  The 
first  is  a  history  written  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
prophets  and  consists  of  two  documents  called  respec- 
tively the  Jehovistic  and  the  Klohistic,  because  of  the 
term  uniformly  applied  to  God  in  each  of  them.  The 
fact  that  these  documents  often  described  the  same 
events  accounts  for  the  many  stories  repeated  in  the 
book,  especially  in  the  first  part.  The  second  is  a 
priestly  history  forming  a  setting  to  the  priestly  code. 
This  is  held  to  be  post-exilic  in  origin,  the  author  get- 


The  Bible  of  the  Jews  \  2 1 


ting  much  of  his  material  for  the  account  of  creation, 
the  origin  of  the  Sabbath,  the  Flood,  and  other  alleged 
prehistoric  events  during  the  Babylonish  captivity. 
The  first  compilation  is  regarded  as  the  work  of  a 
Judean  editor  about  750  B.C.  It  is  evident,  therefore, 
that  the  book  of  Genesis  came  into  being  gradually, 
and,  long  after  the  time  of  Moses  took  on  its  present 
form. 

The  composite  character  of  Exodus  is  seen  in  the  fact 
that  the  legislative  sections,  namely,  xxi.-xxiii.,  known 
as  the  Book  of  the  Covenant  ;  xx.  1-17,  the  Decalogue; 
and  xxxiv.  10-28,  the  older  Decalogue,  evidently  be- 
long to  different  periods.  It  is  the  general  opinion  of 
competent  authorities  that  the  oldest  form  of  the  Deca- 
logue cannot  be  much  older  than  the  eighth  century, 
several  centuries  after  the  time  of  Moses.  Numbers  is 
moral  in  tone  rather  than  ritual,  and  the  stress  laid 
upon  the  prohibition  of  image-worship  requires  a  later 
date  than  that  of  Elijah  and  Elisha. 

As  to  I^eviticus  the  Law  of  Holiness  (chapters  xvii.- 
xxvi.)  is  now  believed  to  have  been  compiled  during  the 
exile,  and,  together  with  the  Priestly  Code  making  up 
the  rest  of  the  book  and  the  book  of  Numbers,  to  have 
been  put  into  its  present  form  by  the  editors  of  the  Pen- 
tateuch after  the  return  from  Babylon  about  444  B.C. 

The  chronological  order  of  these  codes  is  now  thought 
to  be  as  follows  :  Book  of  the  Covenant,  Deuteronomic 
Code,  Law  of  HoHness,  and  Priestly  Code.  In  the  first 
there  is  no  restriction  of  the  worship  of  Jehovah  to  a 
single  sanctuary,  but  there  is  in  all  the  others.  The 
Holiness  Code  recognizes  only  Aaronites  as  priests.  The 
Priestly  Code  makes  a  sharp  division  between  Levites 
and  priests. 

Scholars  are  now  practically  unanimous  that  the  book 


1 2  2  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

of  Deuteronomy  is  the  book  referred  to  in  2  Kings  xxii. 
8,  as  having  been  found  in  the  eighteenth  year  of  Jo- 
siah  (622  B.C.)  by  the  High  Priest  Hilkiah.  It  is  also 
agreed  that  this  law-book  was  not  by  any  means  as  ex- 
tensive as  the  present  book  of  Deuteronomy.  Mau}^ 
think  that  it  consisted  of  chapters  v.-xxvi.,  composed 
not  earlier  than  the  time  of  Hezekiah,  and  perhaps  by 
Hilkiah  himself.  The  rest  of  the  work  according  to 
the  scholars  of  to-day  is  made  up  of  later  additions  to 
fit  the  book  into  its  present  place  in  the  Pentateuch. 
Such  investigators  as  Kuenen,  Graf,  Wellhausen,  and 
Stade  regard  the  Deuteronomic  Code  as  based  upon  the 
Book  of  the  Covenant  (Bx.  xxi.-xxiii.)  which  it  en- 
larges and  adapts  to  new  conditions.  They  also  hold 
that  it  is  older  than  the  Law  of  Holiness  (Lev.  xvii.- 
xxvi.)  and  the  Priestly  Code. 

It  is  now  maintained  that  the  original  Deuteronomy 
was  probably  written  in  Jerusalem,  where  a  special  ef- 
fort was  made  after  the  destruction  of  the  northern  king- 
dom to  form  an  ideal  code  that  would  keep  the  people 
true  to  the  worship  of  Jehovah.  And  as  all  the  proph- 
ets were  constantly  pointing  to  the  days  of  the  wan- 
derings in  the  wilderness  under  the  leadership  of  Moses 
as  the  ideal  days,  tradition  gradually  came  to  attri- 
bute the  authorship  of  the  book  to  Moses,  the  subject- 
matter  being  made  over  by  ed  i  tors  to  fit  in  with  this  view . 

The  first  five  books  of  the  Hebrew  bible  are  no  longer 
regarded  as  making  up  a  consistent  whole.  The  book 
of  Joshua  is  now  included  with  them  and  the  collection 
is  called  the  Hexateuch,  the  word  Pentateuch  being 
excluded  from  use,  when  the  attempt  is  made  to  deal 
with  an  actual  grouping  of  the  facts. 

The  book  of  Joshua,  it  is  now  admitted,  was  written 
long  after  the  time  of  Joshua.     The  historical  narrative 


The  Bible  of  the  Jews  123 

in  it,  practically  all  agree,  was  probably  written  in  the 
seventh  century  B.C.,  while  the  various  codes  and  the 
priestly  history  were  added  several  centuries  later. 
Joshua,  it  is  now  held,  was  a  prominent  leader  in  the 
movement  which  brought  the  Hebrews  into  posses- 
sion of  the  lands  to  the  west  of  Jordan,  and  in  all  like- 
lihood captured  Jericho,  but  the  other  deeds  attributed 
to  him  in  the  book  belong  to  later  periods. 

The  books  of  Judges,  Samuel,  and  Kings  are  no 
longer  regarded  as  histories  in  the  proper  sense  of  that 
term.  The  events  recorded  in  them  do  not  follow  each 
other  either  chronologically  or  otherwise  according  to 
any  discoverable  plan.  Together  with  the  books  that 
precede  them,  constituting  the  Hexateuch,  they  form 
in  the  opinion  of  modern  scholars  a  great  historical 
compilation  extending  from  the  creation  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem  by  Nebuchadnezzar  II.  in  586  B.  c. 
It  was  made  from  numerous  sources  that  were  put  into 
their  present  form  by  redactors  of  post-  exilic  times,  who 
took  it  for  granted  that  the  promises  alleged  to  have 
been  made  to  Abraham  and  Moses  regarding  the  pos- 
session of  Canaan  and  the  future  greatness  of  the 
Hebrew  people  had  already  been  literally  fulfilled. 

Chronicles  is  now  considered  as  one  w^ork  with  Ezra 
and  Nehemiah,  they  all  having  a  common  author.  It 
is  evident  that  the  writer  lived  some  time  after  Ezra 
and  was  devoted  to  the  religious  institutions  of  the  new 
theocracy.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  references  to  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah  as  leaving  memoirs  are  authentic.  It  is  also 
doubtful  if  any  return  of  exiles  in  large  numbers  took 
place  in  the  time  of  Cyrus. 

As  a  consequence  of  this  modern  attempt  to  get  at  the 
facts  scholars  now  hold  that  there  was  an  individual  by 
the  name  of  Moses  of  whom  we  have  some  distinct 


124  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

reminiscences,  but  for  the  most  part  the  name  designates 
a  personage  around  whom  there  gradually  came  to  be 
centred  all  the  traditions,  legends,  and  myths  connected 
with  the  exodus  from  Egypt  and  the  settlement  of  the 
people  in  their  own  land. 

In  the  opinion  of  a  large  number  of  scholars  Abraham 
designates  a  tribe  merely  and  not  an  individual.  Some, 
however,  regard  him  as  a  real  personage  who  probably 
had  his  home  at  Hebron.  All  admit  that  many  of  the 
stories  told  of  him  have  come  down  from  various 
periods  and  preserve  for  us  a  picture  of  the  conditions 
that  prevailed  in  the  earliest  times  of  which  the  people 
centuries  after  his  demise  had  any  recollection. 

Some  scholars  now  hold  that  Isaac  is  a  tribal  name, 
but  that  the  character  of  the  tribe  has  been  almost  en- 
tirely obscured  by  the  many  legends  that  have  grown 
up  around  a  supposed  personality.  The  incidents  in 
the  story  of  the  offering  up  of  Isaac  on  Mount  Moriah 
were  invented,  it  is  thought,  to  account  for  the  pro- 
hibition of  human  sacrifices  as  set  forth  in  the  Penta- 
teuchal  codes,  and  to  emphasize  the  claims  of  Jerusalem 
as  the  only  legitimate  sanctuary  of  Jehovah.  The  home 
of  the  tribe  was  probably  Beersheba,just  as  Hebron  was 
of  Abraham  and  Bethel  of  Jacob.  The  stories  about 
these  three  patriarchs,  it  is  held,  represent  the  gradual 
coalition  of  the  traditions  of  the  three  clans  that  united 
to  form  the  confederacy  known  as  the  Bene  Israel  or 
Children  of  Israel. 

David,  in  the  opinion  of  most  modern  scholars,  was 
a  great  warrior  and  a  natural  born  leader  of  men,  full 
of  courage  and  inexhaustible  energy.  But  he  was  often 
cruel  to  his  enemies,  sometimes  treacherous,  and  always 
willing  to  adopt  any  measures  to  accomplish  his  ends. 
Many  hold  that  he  did  not  write  any  poetry,  excepting, 


The  Bible  of  the  Jews  125 


perhaps,  the  dirge  on  the  deaths  of  Saul  and  Jonathan. 
The  life  and  works  of  Solomon,  David's  son  and 
successor,  are  described,  it  is  believed,  with  considerable 
accuracy  in  Kings,  though  highly  colored  by  legendary 
lore  added  several  centuries  later  than  the  earlier  docu- 
ments upon  which  the  account  in  Kings  is  based.  The 
books  ascribed  to  him— Proverbs,  Canticles,  and  Ec- 
clesiastes— are  all  of  them  now  regarded  as  much  later 
than  his  day.  The  description  of  the  temple  he  built 
is  generally  considered  to  be  a  great  exaggeration, 
while  the  account  of  the  ceremonies  that  took  place  in 
it  is  held  to  be  post-exilic,  and  so  is  also  the  prayer  of 
consecration.  Such  a  story  as  that  of  the  alleged  visit 
of  the  Queen  of  Sheba  to  learn  by  personal  observation 
of  the  glory  of  Solomon,  naturally  came  to  connect 
itself  in  the  minds  of  the  people  with  his  magnificent 
reign. 

All  authorities  agree  that  the  book  of  Proverbs  is  a 
combination  of  several  distinct  collections,  and  that 
some  of  the  sayings  may  go  back  to  the  time  of 
Solomon.  Yet  the  work  as  a  whole  was  a  gradual 
growth  and  must  have  extended  over  several  centuries. 
It  is  believed  that  the  first  of  the  eight  sections 
(chapters  i.-ix.)  into  which  it  is  divided  is  the  latest, 
and  was  not  put  into  its  present  form  till  about  250  b.c! 
The  second  section  (chapters  x.-xxii.)  is  regarded  as 
the  oldest  and  composed  not  long  before  the  return 
from  Babylonia. 

Of  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  compositions  making 
up  the  book  of  Psalms,  seventy-three  came  eventually 
to  be  ascribed  to  David.  But  it  is  now  held  by  01s- 
hausen,  Cheyne,  George  Adam  Smith,  and  other 
eminent  scholars  that  none  of  the  Psalms  were  written 
in  his  time,  or  even  before  the  exile.     Some,  however, 


126  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

would  admit  the  existence  of  pre-exilic  Psalms  and  a 
few  are  still  of  the  opinion  that  the  first  Psalm  and 
possibly  several  others  are  Davidic.  The  first  of  the 
three  collections  into  which  the  Psalms  are  now 
divided,  scholars  tell  us,  was  probably  compiled  in  the 
days  of  Ezra ;  the  second  in  the  Persian  period  ;  and 
the  third  in  the  Greek,  close  to  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  era.  I^ong  before  any  of  the  Psalms  were 
composed  there  must  have  existed  much  of  what  may 
be  called  folk-poetry,  such  as  David's  lament  over 
Saul  and  Jonathan  (2  Samuel  i.  17-27),  the  Song  of 
the  Well  (Numbers  xxi.  17-18),  the  Song  of  Lamech 
(Genesis  iv.  23-24),  and  the  Song  of  Deborah  (Judges 
V.  1-3 1 ).  The  lost  book  of  Jasher  was  probably  a 
book  of  songs. 

Canticles  is  now  regarded  as  a  collection  of  songs 
used  at  weddings  and  similar  gatherings.  Instead  of 
being  written  by  Solomon,  it  is  supposed  to  be  one  of 
the  latest  compilations  to  find  a  place  in  the  Hebrew 
canon.  Because  Solomon  early  became  the  ideal  repre- 
sentative of  wisdom  and  riches  and  power,  the  original 
author  of  Kcclesiastes  naturally  ascribed  his  book  to 
him  as  the  best  judge  of  the  vanity  of  life.  Everything 
is  doubted  in  the  book  except,  indeed,  the  divine  ex- 
istence,— the  advantages  of  wisdom  and  virtue,  and 
even  the  justice  and  goodness  of  God.  It  is  thoroughly 
pessimistic  and  was  probably  written  at  some  special 
period  of  depression  in  the  history  of  the  Jews.  It  was 
admitted  into  the  canon  only  after  later  editors  had 
interspersed  some  elevating  sentiments  through  the 
body  of  it,  and  especially  had  added  a  pious  conclusion 
to  soften  down  its  audacious  tone. 

The  longest  and  greatest  of  all  the  prophetic  books 
of  the  Old  Testament  is  Isaiah.     It  is  now  considered 


The  Bible  of  the  Jews  \  2  7 


by  modern  scholars  as  the  work  of  several  authors,  ex- 
tending over  a  long  period  of  time.  They  account  for 
its  existence  as  follows  :  The  discourses  of  Isaiah,  who 
was  born  about  760  B.C.,  form  only  a  small  portion  of 
the  book,  and  these  have  been  much  changed  to  adapt 
them  to  more  modern  conditions.  The  watchword  of 
Isaiah  was  that  no  people  can  prosper  except  by  right 
conduct,  and  the  impression  that  this  message  made 
upon  his  own  age  was  propagated  to  later  times.  He 
thus  became  the  type  of  all  genuine  prophets  of  Jeho- 
vah. Every  one  who  brought  forth  a  similar  message 
for  the  people  strove  to  have  it  considered  a  part  of 
Isaiah's. 

The  book  is  a  twofold  collection.  The  first  takes 
in  chapters  i.-xxxiii.,  and  contains  the  discourses 
of  Isaiah;  the  second  (chapters  xxxiv.-lxvi.)  is 
exilic  and  post-exilic,  and  must  be  the  work  of  several 
other  authors.  Isaiah  was  a  prophet  of  doom,  but  he 
came  to  be  supplemented  later  by  the  prophets  of  hope. 
The  book  probably  extends  firom  the  last  of  the  eighth 
century  B.C.  to  the  beginning  of  the  third.  Chapter  ii. 
stands  by  itself  and  seems  to  be  a  very  late  introduction 
written  after  the  rest  of  the  collection  had  come  into 
its  present  form. 

The  second  of  the  four  major  prophetical  books, 
Jeremiah,  appears  to  have  had  an  origin  very  similar  to 
that  of  Isaiah.  Only  a  few  of  the  discourses  in  it,  it  is 
now  believed,  can  be  definitely  ascribed  to  Jeremiah, 
who  was  bom  about  650  B.C.,  and  no  one  of  these  is 
probably  just  as  he  delivered  it.  The  compilers  of  the 
book  have  sought  to  bring  together  under  his  name 
whatever  they  could  find  that  would  give  consolation 
and  inspiring  thoughts  to  the  faithful.  It  is  chiefly  the 
product  of  the  sad  days  that  followed  the  departure  of 


12  8  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

Nehemiah  and  reaches  down  to  the  uprising  of  the 
Maccabees. 

The  book  of  Lamentations  is  not  now  generally 
ascribed  to  Jeremiah  though  it  is  admitted  that  the 
work  has  been  greatly  influenced  by  his  style  and 
thought.  Most  of  the  elegies  or  dirges  in  it  were  com- 
posed to  bewail  catastrophes  that  befell  the  people  both 
before  and  after  the  exile. 

Scholars  now  maintain  that  most  of  the  prophecies 
that  have  come  down  to  us  in  Kzekiel  are  substantially 
as  they  were  left  by  the  prophet,  who  was  himself  one 
of  the  captives  carried  to  Babylonia  at  the  command  of 
Nebuchadnezzar.  By  visions,  parables,  and  allegories, 
he  endeavored  to  arouse  the  masses  to  a  genuine  reali- 
zation of  the  sad  events  that  were  transpiring  around 
them,  and  at  the  same  time  to  comfort  and  encourage 
them  for  the  future. 

That  the  book  of  Daniel  was  composed  about  the 
year  165  B.C.  is  now  admitted  by  practically  all  schol- 
ars. The  narratives  and  visions  refer  to  conditions  that 
existed  in  Jerusalem  at  the  time  when  the  Jews  were 
being  bitterly  oppressed  because  of  their  religion  by  An- 
tiochus  IV.,  surnamed  Epiphanes,  King  of  Syria  187- 
164  B  c.  While  some  hold  that  the  book  is  the  work 
of  several  authors  most  scholars  now  regard  it  as  the 
product  of  a  single  mind.  Antiochus  was  endeavoring 
to  supplant  the  Jewish  rites  by  introducing  the  Greek 
form  of  worship.  The  author  of  Daniel,  using  difier- 
ent  historical  names,  such  as  Nebuchadnezzar,  Belshaz- 
zar,  and  Darius  for  his  attacks  upon  Antiochus,  makes 
every  effort  he  can  by  the  use  of  figures  and  visions  to 
stir  up  his  compatriots  to  throw  off  the  hated  yoke. 
The  book  did  in  all  probability  have  much  to  do  in 
bringing  about  the  Maccabean  uprising  which  for  a 


The  Bible  of  the  Jews  129 


time   gave   the  Jews   great   hope    of   restoring    their 
national  unity  and  power. 

Of  the  so-called  twelve  minor  prophets  scholars  are 
agreed  that  they  each  represent  original  discourses 
much  modified  by  later  additions  and  interpolations. 
They  are  not  arranged  in  chronological  order,  either  in 
the  Hebrew  or  in  the  English  bible. 

Malachi,  although  the  last  in  the  English  version,  is 
now  regarded  as  belonging  to  the  Persian  period  and 
as  written  about  the  first  half  of  the  fourth  century 
B.C.,  when  the  evils  described  in  it  were  beginning 
to  reach  their  climax.  Moreover,  the  title  Malachi  in 
the  opinion  of  many  scholars  does  not  refer  to  any  in- 
dividual, but  is  to  be  taken  literally  as  ' '  my  messen- 
ger." Others  in  the  list  of  the  minor  prophets  are 
probably  also  anonymous.  No  one  claims  that  the 
book  of  Jonah  contains  his  prophecies.  It  is  merely  a 
story  about  him,  an  allegory  teaching  the  lesson  that 
man  cannot  escape  from  God  by  flight,  and  that  when 
one  has  a  duty  to  perform  he  should  do'  it  fearlessly, 
leaving  results  to  God. 

It  is  now  held  that  the  thing  that  most  radically  af- 
fected the  composition  and  character  of  the  Hebrew 
bible  was  the  Babylonian  captivity.  When  Jerusalem 
fell  the  people  for  the  first  time  in  their  history  began  to 
realize  their  true  position.  They  began  to  see  that  their 
calamities  were  due  to  their  sins  in  not  following  the 
injunctions  of  their  prophets ;  and  that,  if  they  were 
ever  to  regain  their  national  existence,  they  must  make 
up  their  minds  to  aboHsh  all  other  deities  and  rites 
and  worship  Jehovah  alone.  During  the  exile 
they  had  due  time  to  reflect  upon  the  situation. 
Their  leaders  searched  into  the  annals  and  traditions 
of  the   past  and  they  found  that  whenever  they  had 


130  The  Sphere  of  Religio7i 

turned  aside  to  other  gods  disasters  at  once  began  to 
multiply. 

Nothing,  therefore,  was  of  greater  moment  to  them 
than  to  know  exactly  what  course  of  action  and  life 
would  be  acceptable  to  Jehovah.  Their  prophets  and 
scribes  set  to  work  to  prepare  such  a  code.  Ezra,  who 
was  the  chief  agent  in  this  work,  first  introduced  the 
code  with  the  aid  of  Nehemiah  at  the  time  when  a  small 
remnant  of  the  faithful  gathered  together  about  the  ruins 
of  Jerusalem  in  444  B.C.  From  that  time  forth  this 
code  was  regarded  as  embodying  the  direct,  unchange- 
able will  of  Jehovah.  I,ater,  after  many  legends  and 
much  historical  matter  had  been  added  to  it,  it  became 
our  present  Pentateuch,  which  was  itself  finally  incor- 
porated with  other  laws  and  traditions  ending  with  the 
second  book  of  Kings. 

The  whole  Hebrew  bible  represents  a  period  of  liter- 
ary activity  of  over  a  thousand  years,  ending  with  the 
book  of  Daniel  about  165  b.  c.  The  style  of  its  thought 
is  intuitive  rather  than  logical.  It  has  little  interest  in 
scientific  method,  yet  its  love  of  nature  is  one  of  its  most 
striking  features.  The  subjects  it  treats  concern  almost 
every  phase  of  human  life.  Its  chief  aim  is  to  present 
the  character  and  will  of  Jehovah  and  to  set  forth  the 
principles  upon  which  he  governs  his  universe.  Its 
legal  codes  were  intended  to  show  the  people  how  they 
might  attain  their  own  highest  development  and  at  the 
same  time  carry  out  the  plans  and  purposes  of  their  God. 
Many  of  the  Psalms  voice  the  feelings  and  the  attitude 
of  will  that  characterize  every  truly  religious  individual. 

The  modern  study  of  the  book  has  brought  out  the 
fact  that  the  truths  it  contains  are  the  result  of  centuries 
of  growth  and  development  from  the  gross  and  super- 
ficial to  the  deeply  spiritual  and  profound.    The  message 


The  C J  iris  Han  Scriptures  131 

that  it  brings  to  mankind  must  always  remain  a  living 
and  a  vital  one. 

i.  The  Christian  Scriptures.— The  book  con- 
taining the  history  and  teachings  of  early  Christianity 
is  now  called  the  New  Testament,  and  even  the  most 
casual  reader  cannot  fail  to  see  that  it  was  written  to 
record  the  experiences  of  a  small  number  of  people  in 
a  decidedly  obscure  corner  of  the  earth. 

The  book  is  a  collection  of  writings  which  may  well 
be  arranged,  as  we  now  have  them,  into  three  main 
groups.  To  the  first  or  the  historical  group  belong  the 
four  gospels,  giving  an  account  of  the  life  and  dis- 
courses of  Jesus,  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  describ- 
ing the  influence  of  that  life  upon  the  Jewish  and  pagan 
world  of  their  day.  The  second,  or  didactic  and  hor- 
tatory-group, is  made  up  of  thirteen  epistles  of  Paul, 
two  of  Peter,  three  of  John,  one  epistle  of  James,  and 
one  of  Jude.  The  third  consists  solely  of  the  book  of 
Revelation. 

The  four  gospels  are  attributed  lespectively  to  Mat- 
thew, Mark,  Luke,  and  John.  Chapter  i.  of  Matthew's 
gospel  begins  with,  "The  book  of  the  generation  of 
Jesus  Christ,"  tracing  it  back  to  Abraham  through 
Joseph,  the  husband  of  Mary  of  whom  Jesus  was  born. 
Then  follows  the  announcement  b}^  an  angel  of  the  Lord 
to  Joseph  of  the  coming  virgin  birth  of  Jesus.  Chapter  ii. 
tells  of  the  visit  of  the  Magi  who  came  to  worship  the 
infant  Jesus,  being  guided  by  a  star  which  "went  be- 
fore them  till  it  came  and  stood  over  where  the  young 
child  was."  Herod  the  King  sought  to  kill  the  child, 
but  Joseph  fled  with  his  family  into  Egypt,  returning 
after  the  death  of  Herod  and  settling  at  Nazareth. 
After  a  brief  resume  of  the  ministry  of  John  the 
Baptist  and  his  baptism  of  Jesus  in  chapter  iii.,  we 


132  The  Sphci'e  of  Religion 

have  an  account  of  the  fasting  and  temptation  of  Jesus 
in  the  first  part  of  chapter  iv.  The  rest  of  the  chap- 
ter tells  us  how  Jesus  began  to  preach,  to  call  his  fol- 
lowers from  their  fishing  nets,  and  to  heal  all  manner 
of  diseases. 

From  this  point  on  the  author  seems  to  abandon  the 
chronological  order  for  the  topical.  Chapters  v.,  vi., 
and  vii.  contain  a  group  of  discourses  describing  the 
character  of  the  Messianic  Kingdom,  now  called  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  which  begins  with  the  following 
Beatitudes  (Chapter  v.  3-16.): 

"  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit :  for  theirs  is  the  king- 
dom of  heaven. 

"Blessed  are  they  that  mourn:  for  they  shall  be 
comforted. 

"Blessed  are  the  meek:  for  they  shall  inherit  the 
earth. 

' '  Blessed  are  they  which  do  hunger  and  thirst  after 
righteousness  :  for  they  shall  be  filled. 

"  Blessed  are  the  merciful :  for  they  shall  obtain 
mercy: 

"  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart:  for  they  shall  see  God. 

"Blessed  are  the  peacemakers:  for  they  shall  be 
called  the  children  of  God. 

' '  Blessed  are  they  which  are  persecuted  for  right- 
eousness' sake  :  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

"  Blessed  are  ye,  when  men  shall  revile  you,  and  per- 
secute you,  and  shall  say  all  manner  of  evil  against 
you  falsely,  for  my  sake. 

"  Rejoice,  and  be  exceeding  glad  :  for  great  is  your 
reward  in  heaven  :  for  so  persecuted  they  the  prophets 
which  were  before  you." 

In  chapter  vi.  9-13  we  have  what  is  now  commonly 
called  the  Lord's  Prayer  which  reads  as  follows  : 


The  CJu^istian  Scriptiu^es  i 


00 


"Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven,  Hallowed  be  thy 
name. 

"Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth, 
as  it  is  in  heaven. 

"  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread  : 

"  And  forgive  us  our  debts,  as  we  forgive  our  debtors. 

"And  lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us 
from  evil :  For  thine  is  the  kingdom,  and  the  power, 
and  the  glory,  for  ever.     Amen." 

The  next  two  chapters  describe  a  series  of  miracles 
Jesus  performed,  such  as  cleansing  the  leper,  stilling 
the  tempest,  raising  from  death  the  daughter  of  Jairus, 
and  giving  sight  to  two  blind  men.  Then  comes  an- 
other group  of  discourses,  or  parables,  setting  forth  the 
nature  of  the  Messianic  Kingdom,  which  in  turn  is  fol- 
lowed by  another  group  of  miracles  covering  chapters 
x.-xiv.  So  far  we  have  the  ministry  of  Jesus  in 
Galilee.  With  a  similar  grouping  of  miracles  and  dis- 
courses his  ministry  north  and  east  of  Galilee  is  de- 
scribed in  chapters  xv.-xviii.  The  latter  part  of  the 
gospel  is  taken  up  with  his  work  in  and  about  Jerusa- 
lem, closing  with  an  account  of  his  betrayal,  trial, 
crucifixion,  and  resurrection. 

The  writer  clearly  shows  that  his  purpose  is  to  set 
forth  Jesus  as  the  promised  Jewish  Messiah.  But  he 
severely  rebukes  the  view  of  the  Messiah  held  by  the 
Scribes  and  Pharisees  of  his  time,  and  strongly  em- 
phasizes the  commission  of  Jesus  to  go  into  all  the 
world  and  make  disciples  of  all  nations. 

The  gospel  according  to  Mark,  although  it  goes  over 
much  of  the  same  ground  as  the  gospel  according  to 
Matthew,  differs  from  it  in  being  more  simple  in  its 
structure  and  in  following  the  normal  chronological 
order  of  events  in  the  life  of  Jesus.    In  the  first  thirteen 


134  'The  Sphere  of  Religion 

verses  it  briefly  describes  the  work  of  John  the  Baptist 
and  the  baptism  and  temptation  of  Jesus.  It  then 
takes  up  the  popular  work  of  Jesus  in  and  beyond 
Galilee,  setting  it  forth  mainly  as  a  work  of  instruction 
for  his  immediate  disciples  (chapter  i.  14-ix.  29).  Then 
begins  the  journey  to  Jerusalem  when  Jesus  clearly  an- 
nounces his  coming  death,  which,  according  to  Mark, 
seems  to  have  determined  from  that  time  on  the  charac- 
ter of  his  work.  At  Jerusalem  Jesus  lays  his  claims  to 
be  the  Messiah  before  the  religious  leaders,  who  per- 
sistently reject  them  (chapters  ix.  30-xiii.  37).  The 
concluding  chapters,  as  with  Matthew,  deal  with  the 
betrayal,  crucifixion,  and  resurrection. 

Mark  makes  no  reference  to  the  virgin  birth  of  Jesus, 
or  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  When  he  introduces 
any  of  the  discourses  of  Jesus  they  are  very  much 
shorter  than  in  Matthew.  The  familiarity  of  the 
author  with  Jewish  customs  ^nd  ideas,  as  well  as  his  in- 
timate acquaintance  with  the  Aramaic  language,  shows 
that  he  was  a  Jew,  but  the  constant  need  of  explaining 
these  customs  and  interpreting  this  language  to  his 
readers  shows  that  he  was  writing  for  Gentile  Chris- 
tians rather  than  for  Jewish,  as  we  found  was  the  case 
with  Matthew. 

The  third  of  these  gospels  differs  from  either  of  the 
preceding  both  in  the  amount  and  the  arrangement  of 
its  material.  The  author  states  in  his  introduction 
that  his  purpose  is  to  give  Theophilus,  the  person  to 
whom  the  work  is  addressed,  a  more  orderly  and  com- 
plete account  of  the  ' '  things  most  surely  believed 
among  us  "  than  he  had  already  received.  The  narra- 
tive begins,  not  only  with  an  extended  description  of 
the  virgin  birth  of  Jesus,  but  also  of  the  birth  of  John 
the  Baptist ;  and  ends  with  an  account  of  the  ascension. 


The  Christian  Scriptures  135 


Besides  giving  very  much  the  same  material  as  is 
found  in  Matthew  and  Mark,  he  adds  many  new  de- 
tails and  brings  out  many  new  facts ;  for  example,  he 
alone  gives  the  song  of  Mary,  the  prophetic  song  of 
Zacharias,  the  story  of  the  shepherds,  the  song  of 
Simeon,  and  the  visit  of  the  boy  Jesus  to  Jerusalem. 
In  describing  the  public  ministry  of  Jesus  the  writer 
arranges  his  material  into  two  main  divisions  about  the 
same  as  Mark  does,  namely,  the  work  of  Jesus  among 
the  people  and  his  work  of  instructing  his  disciples. 
The  gospel  of  Luke  alone  contains  an  account  of  the 
transfiguration.  The  last  journey  of  Jesus  to  Jerusa- 
lem is  described  at  much  greater  length  than  in  any  of 
the  other  gospels,  nearly  ten  chapters  being  devoted 
to  it. 

It  is  admitted  by  the  author  that  he  was  not  an  eye- 
witness of  the  events  he  describes,  but  he  claims  to 
have  access  to  material  that  was  prepared  by  those  who 
"  from  the  beginning  were  eye-witnesses  and  ministers 
of  the  word."  He  is  evidently  writing  chiefly  for 
Gentile  readers,  for  he  habitually  quotes  from  the 
Septuagint  translation,  avoids  the  use  of  Aramaisms, 
and  assumes  that  his  readers  are  unacquainted  with 
Palestinian  geography  and  Jewish  customs. 

In  marked  contrast  with  the  three  gospels  already 
mentioned,  the  gospel  of  John  is  not  in  any  sense  a 
biography  of  Jesus.  The  author  assumes  that  his 
readers  already  know  of  the  principal  events  in  the 
life  of  Jesus  from  other  sources.  Only  the  events  of 
a  very  few  days  in  his  public  ministry  are  described  at 
any  length  by  him,  probably  less  than  twenty.  The 
author  himself  declares  that  the  purpose  of  his  writing 
is  to  help  his  readers  to  "believe  that  Jesus  is  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God"  (xx.  31),  and  he  selects  such 


3 


6  T/ie  Sphere  of  Religion 


events  and  discourses  as  lie  thinks  will  contribute  to 
this  end. 

He  asserts  at  the  very  outset  that  Jesus  vi^as  the 
divine  Logos  incarnate,  and  introduces  the  prologue  to 
his  gospel  with  the  following  remarkable  passage:  "  In 
the  beginning  was  the  Word  and  the  Word  was  with 
God  and  the  Word  was  God.  The  same  was  in  the 
beginning  with  God.  All  things  were  made  by  him , 
and  without  him  was  not  anything  made  that  was 
made.  In  him  was  life  ;  and  the  life  was  the  light  of 
men."  The  rest  of  the  gospel  is  written  to  show  how 
Jesus  established  this  belief  regarding  himself  in  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  his  disciples. 

The  author  tells  us  in  the  first  four  chapters  how  the 
earliest  followers  of  Jesus  began  to  have  faith  in  him. 
Then  he  writes  in  the  next  eight  chapters  chiefly  of 
the  great  conflict  Jesus  had  with  the  unbelieving  Jews 
and  what  unavailing  efforts  he  put  forth  to  convince 
them.  Even  the  great  miracle  of  the  raising  of  Lazarus 
from  the  dead  only  made  them  more  intensely  hostile. 

The  next  section  of  the  gospel  (chapters  xiii -xvii.) 
treats  of  the  self- revelation  of  Jesus  to  his  disciples. 
By  washing  their  feet,  by  conversations  at  the  supper 
about  his  relation  to  the  Father  and  to  them,  by  dis- 
courses on  the  way  to  Gethsemane,  and  by  his  inter- 
cessory prayers  in  their  behalf,  he  made  himself  known 
to  them  in  such  a  way  that  their  faith  in  him  was 
carried  to  the  climax  of  intensity.  Then  follows  the 
record  of  the  chief  culminating  events  in  his  earthly 
career,  terminating  in  his  glorious  resurrection,  and 
proving  beyond  all  doubt  to  the  mind  of  the  writer 
that  what  he  had  claimed  for  Jesus  in  the  prologue  he 
reall^^  was. 

The  gospel  seems  to  have  been  written  by  an  eye- 


The  Christian  Scriptures  137 

witness  of  many  of  the  events  recorded  in  it.  In  some 
of  these  events  he  seems  also  to  have  taken  a  prominent 
part.  His  way  of  referring  to  most  of  the  persons  he 
mentions  gives  the  impression  of  an  intimate  acquaint- 
ance with  them,  and  his  knowledge  of  Palestine  and  of 
Jewish  customs  and  ideas  appears  to  be  entirely  first 
hand.  The  natural  inference  is  that  the  author  was  a 
Jew  who  had  broken  away  from  the  Judaism  of  this 
time  and  given  himself  heart  and  soul  to  the  advocacy 
of  the  Christian  system. 

The  fifth  book  of  the  New  Testament  as  we  now 
have  it,  is  called  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  is  sub- 
stantially a  continuation  of  the  third  gospel.  The 
first  part,  after  giving  a  fuller  account  of  the  ascension 
than  we  find  in  Luke,  describes  at  length  the  work  of 
Peter  in  extending  the  church  in  and  about  Jerusalem 
(chapters  i.-xii.).  The  second  part  tells  of  the  mis- 
sionary journeys  of  Paul  and  his  efforts  to  spread 
Christianity  in  Gentile  lands.  In  this  part  the  pro- 
noun "we"  is  frequently  used,  implying  that  the 
writer  was  a  companion  of  Paul  at  the  time  and  had 
much  to  do  with  the  events  described. 

Next  comes  the  epistle  to  the  Romans,  the  first  of 
the  thirteen  epistles  attributed  in  our  New  Testament 
to  Paul.  In  this  epistle  the  author  states  at  the  out- 
set that  he  is  intending  to  make  his  readers  a  visit,  but 
at  the  time  of  writing  is  under  obligation  to  go  to  Jeru- 
salem. Very  naturally  under  the  circumstances  he  does 
what  he  can  to  inform  them  as  to  the  vital  matters  in 
his  preaching  and  thus  prepare  them  to  give  him  a 
friendly  reception  when  on  his  coming  tour  he  arrives 
in  the  metropolis  of  the  world. 

The  epistle  naturally  divides  itself  into  two  main  por- 
tions.  The  first  part  is  chiefly  doctrinal,  ending  with  the 


138  The  Sphere  of  Religio7i 

doxology  in  chapter  xi.  36,  and  the  second  is  chiefly 
practical.  Paul  at  first  explains  his  doctrine  of  justifi- 
cation through  faith,  and  then,  after  vindicating  the 
doctrine  historically  and  experimentally  against  many 
conceivable  objections,  he  shows  why  it  ought  to  be 
preached  to  the  Gentiles  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  ' '  sal- 
vation is  of  the  Jews."  The  last  chapter  of  the  epistle 
is  devoted  to  salutations  to  those  in  the  Roman  church 
with  whom  the  writer  had  a  personal  acquaintance. 

The  epistle  to  the  Romans  is  followed  by  two  epistles 
to  the  Corinthians.  The  first  treats  of  the  divisions 
and  abuses  that  existed  in  the  Corinthian  church  and 
answers  a  number  of  questions  which  had  been  asked 
by  letter.  In  chapter  xiii.  of  this  epistle  we  have  the 
following  remarkable  description  of  the  essence  of  all 
religion : 

"  I.  Though  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and 
of  angels,  and  have  not  charity,!  am  become  as  sound- 
ing brass,  or  a  tinkling  cymbal. 

''  2.  And  though  I  have  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  un- 
derstand all  mysteries,  and  all  knowledge;  and  though 
I  have  all  faith,  so  that  I  could  remove  mountains,  and 
have  not  charity,  I  am  nothing. 

*'  3.  And  though  I  bestow  all  my  goods  to  feed  the 
poor,  and  though  I  give  my  body  to  be  burned,  and 
have  not  charity,  it  profiteth  me  nothing. 

"4.  Charity  suflfereth  long,  and  is  kind;  charity  en- 
vieth  not;  charity  vaunteth  not  itself,  is  not  puffed  up  ; 

"  5.  Doth  not  behave  itself  unseemly,  seeketh  not  her 
own,  is  not  easily  provoked,  thinketh  no  evil  ; 

"6.  Rejoiceth  not  in  iniquity,  but  rejoiceth  in  the 
truth  ; 

"7.  Beareth  all  things,  believeth  all  things,  hopeth 
all  things,  endureth  all  things. 


The  Christian  Scriptures  139 

"  8.  Charity  never  faileth:  but  whether  there  be  pro- 
phecies, they  shall  fail:  whether  there  be  tongues,  the}^ 
shall  cease;  whether  there  be  knowledge,  it  shall 
vanish  away. 

•'  9.  For  we  know  in  part,  and  we  prophesy  in  part. 

*'  10.  But  when  that  which  is  perfect  is  come,  then 
that  which  is  in  part  shall  be  done  away. 

"11.  When  I  was  a  child,  I  spake  as  a  child,  I  under- 
stood as  a  child,  I  thought  as  a  child;  but  when  I  be- 
came a  man,  I  put  away  childish  things. 

**  12.  For  now  we  see  through  a  glass,  darkly;  but 
then  face  to  face ;  now  I  know  in  part ;  but  then  shall  I 
know  even  as  also  I  am  known. 

"  13.  And  now  abideth  faith,  hope,  charity,  these 
three;  but  the  greatest  of  these  is  charity." 

The  second  epistle  to  the  Corinthians  rebukes  certain 
scandals  that  had  arisen  in  the  church,  and  seeks  to 
restore  Paul's  apostolic  authority,  which  had  been 
questioned. 

The  next  epistle  was  written  **  unto  the  churches  of 
Galatia ' '  which  apparently  were  composed  chiefly  of 
Gentiles.  Outside  agitators  were  trying  to  persuade 
them  that  they  must  observe  the  ceremonial  law  of 
Moses,  especially  the  rite  of  circumcision.  Against  this 
Paul  vigorously  protests  and  insists  upon  his  funda- 
mental doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  and  not  by 
works.  All  that  any  believer  has  to  do,  he  declares,  is 
to  bring  forth  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit. 

The  fifth  epistle  is  addressed  ' '  to  the  saints  which 
are  at  Kphesus. ' '  The  first  three  chapters  are  doctrinal ; 
the  last  three  hortatory  and  practical.  After  setting 
forth  that  Christ  is  * '  the  head  over  all  things  to  the 
church  "  and  has  "made  us  to  sit  together  in  heavenly 
places ' '  through  his   grace  and  not  through   works, 


I40  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

Paul  exhorts  his  readers  to  *'walk  worthy  of  the  vo- 
cation "  wherewith  they  are  called  and  "keep  the  unity 
of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace. ' ' 

The  sixth  epistle  of  Paul  is  addressed  ' '  to  all  the 
saints  in  Christ  Jesus  which  are  at  Philippi  with 
the  bishops  and  deacons."  He  exhorts  them  to  "  let 
nothing  be  done  through  strife  and  vainglory  ;  but  in 
lowliness  of  mind  let  each  esteem  other  better  than 
themselves."  They  are  to  "beware  of  evil  workers 
and  the  false  teachings  in  their  midst,  and  to  cleave 
earnestly  and  joyfully  to  the  Christian  life." 

In  the  epistle  to  the  Colossians  Paul  exalts  the 
headship  of  Christ  over  the  world  and  its  powers, 
warns  his  readers  against  the  Gnostic  errors  that  were 
beginning  to  assert  themselves,  and  exhorts  them  to  trust 
implicitly  and  solely  for  salvation  to  faith  in  Christ. 

Of  the  two  epistles  to  the  Thessalonians  the  first  tells 
of  the  apostle's  joy  in  their  patient  endurance  of  perse- 
cution, and  he  encourages  them  with  the  hope  that  the 
lyord  would  speedily  return  and  deliver  them  out  of  all 
their  distresses  (chapter  iv.  16-17).  The  second  epistle 
is  written  to  rebuke  the  Thessalonians  for  abandoning 
their  usual  occupations  in  view  of  this  hope  and  urging 
that  they  be  resumed.  Meanwhile  they  should  fix 
their  attention  upon  certain  events  that  must  precede 
the  Lord's  second  coming. 

The  three  following  epistles,  tv/o  to  Timothy  and  one 
to  Titus,  are  attributed  in  their  opening  passages  to 
Paul.  They  are  occupied  chiefly  with  the  apostle's  in- 
structions as  to  the  duties  of  the  pastoral  ofiice,  a  work 
in  which  the  recipients  were  at  the  time  engaged.  The 
second  epistle  to  Timothy  is  peculiar  in  that  the  last 
chapter  contains  a  reference  to  the  apostle's  expected 
martyrdom. 


The  Christian  Scriptures  141 

Philemon  is  a  letter  on  a  purely  private  matter  written 
by  Paul  to  his  friend  in  behalf  of  a  fugitive  slave  who 
had  become  a  Christian  under  his  influence.  He  ex- 
horts his  friend  to  pardon  the  slave  and  treat  him  as  a 
Christian  brother. 

The  last  of  the  epistles  attributed  to  Paul  in  our  au- 
thorized version  of  the  New  Testament  is  the  letter  to 
the  Hebrews.  The  object  of  the  epistle  is  to  show  the 
infinite  superiority  of  Christ  over  Moses  and  to  warn 
its  readers  against  apOvStasy.  It  establishes  the  New 
Testament  on  the  basis  of  the  Old  and  sets  forth  the 
eternal  character  of  the  priesthood  and  sacrifice  of 
Christ.  The  eleventh  chapter  gives  a  glowing  sum- 
mary of  the  heroes  of  faith. 

The  general  epistle  of  James  comes  next  and  the  two 
epistles  of  Peter.  James  writes  to  defend  the  doctrine 
that  * '  by  works  a  man  is  j  ustified  and  not  by  faith 
only."  "  For  as  the  body  without  the  spirit  is  dead, 
so  faith  without  works  is  dead  also"  (chapter  ii.  26). 

The  first  epistle  of  Peter  inculcates  the  need  in  peril- 
ous times  of  special  patience  under  suffering  and  exhorts 
each  one  to  attend  carefully  to  his  assigned  duties.  The 
second  epistle  is  especially  directed  against  false  teach- 
ers and  corrupters  of  the  church. 

In  the  first  of  the  three  epistles  attributed  to  the 
apostle  John  the  literary  form  and  subject-matter  re- 
mind one  of  the  fourth  gospel.  The  epistle  is  written 
to  show  the  reader  that  the  Word  is  the  word  of  life, 
and  to  unfold  w^hat  it  is  to  be  children  of  God.  The 
second  and  third  epistles  are  more  like  ordinary  letters. 
The  first  seems  to  be  a  general  letter  to  a  church, 
and  the  third  a  supplementary  note  to  an  influential 
individual. 

Jude  is  the  last  of  the  twenty -one  epistles  of  the  New' 


142  The  sphere  of  Religion 

Testament.  It  is  an  impassioned  outburst  against 
heretics  and  false  teachers,  and  much  resembles  the 
second  epistle  of  Peter. 

The  last  book  of  our  New  Testament  is  entitled  The 
Revelation  of  St.  John  the  Divine.  It  is  properly 
called  an  apocalypse  in  that  it  attempts  to  explain  the 
present  dominion  of  evil  in  the  world  and  to  encourage 
the  faithful  by  depicting  the  time  when  their  prophetic 
hopes  will  be  fulfilled  and  all  evil  shall  be  entirely 
overcome.  By  the  use  of  visions  and  highly  fantastic 
imagery,  much  of  which  is  taken  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, it  exhorts  its  readers  to  resist  the  allurements  of 
the  reigning  evil  powers  and  cleave  to  God.  It  begins 
with  certain  admonitions  in  the  form  of  letters  to  the 
seven  churches.  It  then  predicts  the  judgments  that 
are  speedily  to  fall  upon  the  malign  spirits  that  now 
dominate  the  world,  and  concludes  with  an  account  of 
the  final  blessedness  which  will  come  to  those  that 
endure. 

It  would  be  dij0&cult  to  find  any  scholar  in  our  day 
who  would  maintain  that  the  different  books  of  the 
New  Testament  were  written  in  the  order  in  which  we 
now  have  them.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  generally 
agreed  that  most  of  the  epistles  were  in  existence  long 
before  the  gospels,  and  that  the  gospels  did  not  origin- 
ally appear  in  their  present  form  or  order.  Jesus  him- 
self left  no  writings  and  his  early  disciples  probably 
did  not  at  first  see  the  need  of  any. 

When,  however,  Paul  by  his  missionary  journeys 
among  the  Gentiles  had  established  various  groups  of 
believers  over  the  then  Roman  world,  many  occasions 
arose  for  apostolic  counsels  that  could  be  given  only 
by  letter.  Hence  arose  the  epistles,  which  are  all  of 
them  occasional  writings,  though  some  of  them  not 


The  Christian  Scriptures  143 


only  give  advice  about  the  Christian  life,  but  expound 
at  considerable  length  the  fundamental  ideas  upon 
which  it  is  based. 

The  first  book  in  the  New  Testament  to  be  written, 
it  is  now  maintained  by  many  scholars,  was  the  epistle 
of  James.  It  is  a  sort  of  encyclical  letter  addressed 
**  to  the  twelve  tribes  which  are  scattered  abroad,"  and 
probably  appeared  some  time  before  50  a.d.  from  the 
pen  of  James,  the  head  of  the  mother  church.  There 
is  no  sign  in  the  epistle  that  any  attempts  had  yet  been 
made  to  carry  the  gospel  beyond  distinctively  Jewish 
circles.  The  controversy  about  the  position  of  the 
Gentiles  in  the  church  which  led  to  the  Jerusalem 
council  had  not  yet  come  up.  The  point  of  view  of  the 
writer  was  still  that  of  the  Old  Testament  doctrine  of 
justification  by  works,  the  Pauline  doctrine  not  yet 
having  been  developed. 

It  is  now  generally  admitted  that  after  the  epistle  of 
James  the  oldest  books  of  the  New  Testament  are 
Paul's  two  letters  to  the  Thessalonians,  written  chiefly 
to  set  aside  their  false  expectations  concerning  the 
nearness  of  the  return  of  Jesus.  They  were  probably 
written  at  Corinth  during  a.d.  52  or  53.  Then,  accord- 
mg  to  most  authorities,  follow  the  doctrinal  epistles,— 
Galatians,  i  and  2  Corinthians,  and  Romans;  while 
the  so-called  epistles  of  the  imprisonment— Colossians, 
Philemon,  Ephesians,  and  Philippians— are  assigned  to 
Paul's  first  Roman  imprisonment  during  the  years  62- 
63.  The  remaining  pastoral  epistles  are  supposed  to 
have  been  written  just  before  the  apostle's  martyrdom 
about  67  or  68.  Some  critics  do  not  allow  that  Paul 
wrote  all  of  the  epistles  ascribed  to  him  above,  and  a 
few  regard  only  the  four  doctrinal  ones  as  genuinely 
his. 


144  ^^^^  Sphere  of  Religion 

Regarding  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews  all  scholars 
reject  it  as  Pauline  on  the  ground  that  its  style,  its 
language,  and  its  mode  of  thought  do  not  resemble 
anything  else  attributed  to  him.  Who  the  author  of 
Hebrews  was  is  still  unsettled.  Of  the  remaining 
epistles  the  first  epistle  of  Peter  was  probably  written 
by  him  at  Rome,  it  is  held,  between  50  and  55  a.d. 
But  the  second  epistle  is  of  doubtful  genuineness,  no 
distinct  trace  of  its  existence  having  come  to  light  be- 
fore the  time  of  Origen.  The  three  epistles  ascribed  to 
the  apostle  John  are  generally  regarded  as  his,  though 
in  each  case  there  seems  to  be  no  way  to  fix  their  date, 
place  of  writing,  or  destination. 

Regarding  the  gospels  it  is  now  the  general  opinion 
of  scholars  that  for  at  least  a  generation  after  the  death 
of  Jesus  no  attempt  was  made  to  commit  to  writing  any 
of  his  sayings  or  deeds,  so  widespread  and  universal 
was  the  belief  that  his  second  coming  and  the  end  of 
the  world  were  close  at  hand.  But  as  time  wore  away 
and  he  did  not  return  it  became  evident  that  some  au- 
thentic account  of  what  the  apostles  had  seen  and 
heard  about  Jesus  should  be  made  for  the  benefit  of 
those  who  were  to  come  after  them. 

Specialists  are  now  coming  to  recognize  as  the  source 
of  our  present  gospels  of  Matthew  and  lyuke,  two  re- 
latively primitive  documents, — the  gospel  of  Mark,  or 
an  early  draft  of  it  giving  a  simple  account  of  the  chief 
facts  in  the  life  of  Jesus,  and  a  document  called 
"  logia  "  made  up  chiefly  of  his  sayings  and  discourses. 
The  logia  or  discourses,  it  is  held,  were  written  in 
Aramaic  and  probably  by  the  apostle  Matthew.  About 
the  same  time  Mark,  who  is  commonly  known  as  the 
interpreter  of  Peter,  wrote  out  in  Greek  what  he  had 
heard  Peter  say  in  his  addresses  about  the  life  and 


The  Christian  ScripHcres  145 


work  of  Jesus,  adding  from  other  sources  whatever  he 
regarded  as  equally  trustworthy. 

The  first  three  gospels  of  our  New  Testament  have 
so  much  in  common  that  ever  since  the  time  of  Gries- 
bach,  who  over  a  hundred  years  ago  published  the  first 
critical  edition  of  the  New  Testament,  they  have  gen- 
erally been  called  the  synoptic  gospels.  For  they  give 
the  same  general  outline  of  the  life  of  Jesus.  As  a  rule 
they  cite  the  same  miracles  and  discourses  and  omit 
the  same  incidents.  The  order  of  events  described  is 
often  the  same,  even  when  it  is  not  chronological, 
and  the  language  is  also  often  identical.     ' 

It  is  now  practically  the  unanimous  verdict  of  schol- 
ars that  Mark's  gospel  is  much  the  earliest  and  was 
probably  in  existence  by  70  a.d.     It  is  also  equally 
agreed  that  the  authors  of  the  first  and  third  gospels  of 
our  New  Testament  were  familiar  with  Mark's  gospel 
and  freely  used  it.     Our  present  gospel  of  Matthew  is 
thus  the  product  of  an  attempt  to  combine  the  logia  of 
the  apostle  Matthew  with  the  original  Mark.     It  was 
written  in  the  first  instance  for  Jewish  Christians  to 
show  how  the  religion  of  Jesus  organically  developed 
out  of  the  I,aw  and  the  Prophets,  but  its  author  was 
not   an   apostle   or   a   companion  of  Jesus,  otherwise 
we  should  not  have  such  an  artificial  arrangement  of 
the  material,  or  such  a  decided  dependence  upon  pre- 
vious authorities.     About  its  exact  date  there  is  still  a 
division  of  opinion,  some  putting  it  a  little  before  and 
some  shortly  after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  in  the 
year  70  a.d. 

When  Rome,  soon  after  this  event,  became  one  of 
the  most  important  centres  of  Christianity  the  gospel 
of  Mark,  it  is  held,  was  re-edited  and  somewhat  en- 
larged to  adapt  it  to  the  comprehension  and  needs  of 


1^6  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


the  Gentile  Christians  and  brought  into  its  present 
form.  The  preface  (i-  1-3)  was  probably  then  added 
and  also  xvi.  9-20.  Other  minor  insertions  and  changes 
were  probably  made  at  the  same  time  throughout  its 
entire  contents. 

Next  the  gospel  of  lyuke  is  supposed  to  have  ap- 
peared, possibly  also  in  Rome,  its  author  making  use 
chiefly  of  the  logia,  the  original  Mark,  and  our  Mat- 
thew, at  the  same  time  introducing  other  material  both 
oral  and  written  from  sources  now  lost.  Thus  it  is  seen 
that  each  one  of  these  writers  made  free  use  of  what 
had  been  written  by  his  predecessors  and  did  not  claim 
for  himself  or  them  any  infallible  authority.  It  is  also 
clear  that  no  one  of  these  synoptic  gospels,  as  we  now 
have  it,  is  the  record  of  direct  personal  knowledge. 

The  gospel  of  John  is  admittedly  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant books  of  the  whole  New  Testament.  It  is  in 
many  respects  in  striking  contrast  to  the  synoptic 
gospels  already  discussed.  In  place  of  genealogies  the 
author  puts  a  profound  but  brief  statement  regarding 
the  incarnation  of  the  eternal  I^ogos.  The  earthly  life 
of  Jesus  is  laid  by  this  writer  almost  exclusively  in 
Judea,  while  the  synoptics  put  it  chiefly  in  Galilee. 
The  latter  give  the  impression  that  the  public  work  of 
Jesus  did  not  extend  much  over  a  year,  while  the 
former  mentions  three  and  perhaps  more  passovers. 
The  fourth  gospel  puts  the  cleansing  of  the  temple  at 
the  beginning  of  Jesus'  ministry,  the  synoptics  at  the 
close.  The  last  supper  is  placed  by  the  synoptics  on 
the  evening  of  the  passover  itself,  but  this  gospel  puts 
it  on  the  evening  before.  The  gospel  of  John  assumes 
that  its  readers  are  familiar  with  the  other  three  and 
makes  no  mention  of  much  that  they  record.  Many 
of  its  characters  are  new  and  the  same  is  true  of  its 


The  Christian  Scrip  Hires  147 

scenes  and  localities.  It  introduces  few  miracles  and 
chiefly  those  not  referred  to  by  the  other  gospels,  such 
as  the  raising  of  Lazarus  from  the  dead.  John  also 
makes  their  object  different, — to  show  forth  the  super- 
human mission  of  Jesus,  not  to  supply  some  pressing 
human  need. 

The  lengthy  discourses  in  the  fourth  gospel  which 
take  up  the  larger  part  of  the  work  are  very  different 
from  the  parables  and  practical  exhortations  recorded 
by  the  other  three.  Their  style  and  matter  are  so 
unique  that  it  is  hard  to  separate  what  the  author  attri- 
butes to  Jesus  from  what  he  supplies  himself.  Further- 
more, there  is  little  or  no  room  in  the  fourth  gospel  for 
the  human  development  of  Jesus,  From  the  first  he 
seems  to  be  fully  aware  of  his  mission  and  so  do  his 
followers.  The  inwardness  and  spirituality  of  the  re- 
ligious experience  recorded  in  this  gospel,  and  its  con- 
ception of  the  eternal  life  and  of  the  last  things,  differ 
remarkably  from  what  is  everywhere  present  in  the 
synoptics. 

For  these  and  other  reasons  a  great  controversy 
has  been  raging  for  nearly  a  century  as  to  how  the 
fourth  gospel  originated  and  what  is  its  historical 
value.  It  is  now  generally  maintained  that  in  sub- 
stance, at  least,  it  is  the  work  of  the  apostle  John  and 
was  written  at  Ephesus  near  the  close  of  the  first  cen- 
tury, primarily  for  the  Christian  circles  of  that  region. 
John  had  had  a  long  time  to  reflect  upon  the  incidents 
he  had  witnessed  and  the  discourses  he  had  heard.  He 
had  lived  very  close  to  the  Master,  had  observed  the 
origin  and  progress  of  the  church  for  over  half  a  century, 
had  been  well  acquainted  with  Paul,  and  in  his  later 
years  had  been  profoundly  affected  by  the  philosophical 
speculations  everywhere  current  in  his  adopted  city. 


148  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

His  book  was  written  to  give  his  mature  judgments 
concerning  the  mission  of  Jesus  and  in  part  to  describe 
the  growth  of  his  own  rehgious  experience.  He  does 
not  in  all  probability  reproduce  word  for  word  the  dis- 
courses of  his  Master,  as  he  wishes  at  the  same  time  to 
explain  them  and  point  out  their  eternal  significance. 
"Being  an  apostle  he  did  not  need  to  be  literal."  Prob- 
ably he  frequently  modified  the  historical  setting  in 
order  more  fully  to  attain  his  purpose.  Probably  also 
the  gospel  originally  ended  at  the  close  of  chapter  xx. 
The  twenty-first  chapter,  written  to  correct  a  wrong 
impression  concerning  the  meaning  of  the  words  of 
Jesus  to  Peter  regarding  John,  may  have  been  added 
shortly  after  the  apostle's  death,  if  not  before  it. 

Hitherto  the  book  of  Revelation  has  been  considered 
a  work  so  full  of  mystery  as  to  be  almost  unintelligible 
except  to  a  chosen  few.  Some  have  regarded  its  pro- 
phecies as  referring  to  a  time  already  past,  some  have 
taken  the  book,  with  the  exception  of  the  first  three 
chapters,  as  having  to  do  with  events  yet  to  come,  and 
others  have  looked  upon  it  as  giving  a  symbolic  history 
of  the  experience  of  the  Christian  church  from  the  be- 
ginning to  the  end  of  time.  It  has  usually  been  taken 
for  granted  that  it  was  written  by  the  apostle  John 
when  in  exile  on  the  island  of  Patmos  just  before  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  that  he  himself  had  only 
a  dim  consciousness  of  its  significance. 

In  our  time  the  book  is  no  longer  considered  either 
obscure  or  mysterious,  but  far  more  easily  compre- 
hended, for  the  most  part,  than  many  things  to  be 
found  in  other  portions  of  the  New  Testament.  For  it 
is  now  seen  to  have  a  strictly  historical  basis,  and  is 
interpreted  solely  in  the  light  of  the  circumstances  sur- 
rounding its  origin  and  the  views  entertained  by  the 


The  Christian  Scriphtres  149 

people  for  whom  it  was  written.  It  is  placed  side  by 
side  with  a  mass  of  similar  literature  that  appeared  in 
abundance  among  the  Jewish  people  from  at  least  the 
second  century  B.C. 

Scholars  have  now  made  it  clear  that  for  several 
centuries  it  was  the  universal  expectation  of  the  Jews 
that  after  one  dreadful  outburst  of  the  hostile  forces  of 
earth  and  heaven,  God  would  appear  in  the  person  of 
his  Messiah  and  set  up  once  for  all  his  glorious  king- 
dom. Whenever  his  people  came  to  any  crisis  in  their 
affairs  owing  to  unusual  persecutions  or  other  distresses, 
an  apocalypse  would  appear  to  revive  their  drooping 
spirits,  strengthen  their  faith  in  God,  and  assure  them 
of  his  final  victory.  Their  apocalypses  were  written  in 
riddles,  because  it  was  usually  dangerous  to  be  distinct, 
and  because  human  nature  instinctivel)^  associates  the 
mysterious  with  the  divine.  They  were  generally 
ascribed  to  some  celebrated  character  of  the  past  in 
order  to  attract  attention  to  their  contents.  Such  writ- 
ings attributed  to  Enoch,  Moses,  Ezra,  Daniel,  and 
others  still  exist. 

Scholars  now  hold  that  the  book  of  Revelation  like 
the  book  of  Daniel  was  written  at  a  time  of  great 
religious  persecution,  and  that  like  Daniel  its  predic- 
tions are  based  upon  existing  conditions  and  concern 
the  immediate  future.  The  author  of  the  book  is  still 
in  the  Old  Testament  stage  of  development  regarding 
the  world  and  the  state,  which  he  hates  with  all  his 
heart.  He  has  not  yet  risen  to  the  New  Testament 
idea  of  loving  his  enemies.  Still  he  shows  a  firm  faith 
in  Jesus  as  the  true  Messiah  and  Saviour  of  his  people. 
So  permeated  is  he  with  the  spirit  of  the  prophets  and 
psalms  that  he  borrows  most  of  his  strange  imagery 
from   Kzekial,   Zechariah,  and  other   Old  Testament 


150  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

writers  who  had  adopted  this  peculiar  mode  of  ex- 
pressing their  thoughts.  These  considerations  lead 
the  scholars  of  our  day  to  place  the  date  of  its  com- 
position in  the  time  of  the  Domitian  persecutions,  that 
is,  about  95  or  96  a.d.  This  makes  it  the  last  book  in 
point  of  time  in  the  New  Testament.  Its  author  is 
now  regarded  as  some  unknown  Jewish  Christian  not 
yet  fully  imbued  with  the  spirit  and  teachings  of  the 
gospel.  Its  style  and  ideas  are  so  far  removed  from 
the  fourth  gospel  that  few,  if  any,  recent  scholars  can 
see  in  it  the  work  of  the  profoundly  philosophical  and 
spiritually-minded  apostle  John. 

To  the  New  Testament  as  a  w^hole  we  are  chiefly 
indebted  for  the  two  ideas  which  lie  at  the  foundation 
of  the  highest  conceivable  form  of  religion — the  father- 
hood of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man.  No  other 
book  gives  us  such  a  revelation  of  the  love  of  God  for 
all  his  creatures  and  his  unceasing  interest  in  every- 
thing that  concerns  their  welfare.  Jesus  stands  forth 
in  it  as  the  true  interpreter  of  the  universe,  as  the  true 
revealer  of  the  mind  and  heart  of  God.  All  that  is 
noblest  and  best  in  our  modern  civilization  and  in  our 
modern  conception  of  religion  we  owe  to  his  teachings 
and  life. 

j.  The  Koran  of  Mohammed. — The  bible  of 
the  Mohammedans  is  about  the  size  of  the  New 
TcvStament  and  is  called  the  Koran,  a  term  derived 
from  a  word  meaning  to  chant  or  recite.  It  is  the 
sacred  book  of  more  than  a  hundred  millions  of 
people,  and  according  to  a  high  authority  ' '  is  perhaps 
the  most  widely  read  book  in  the  world.  It  is  the  text- 
book in  all  Mohammedan  schools.  All  Moslems  know 
large  parts  of  it  by  heart.  Devout  Moslems  read  it 
through  once  a  month.     Portions  of  it  are  recited  in 


The  Koran  of  Mohammed  151 

the  five  daily  prayers,  and  the  recitation  of  the  whole 
book  is  a  meritorious  work  frequently  performed  at 
solemn  or  festival  anniversaries."  The  students  of 
science  and  philosophy  among  the  Arabians  almost 
from  the  time  the  Koran  was  first  published  have  had 
it  for  their  sole  mission  to  understand  its  precepts. 

The  book  consists  of  one  hundred  and  fourteen  chap- 
ters, or  suras,  and  each  chapter  begins  with  a  heading 
which  states  the  title  and  almost  always  the  place  of 
revelation.  Then  comes  the  formula  '*  In  the  name  of 
the  most  merciful  God."  The  first  chapter  is  often 
called  the  Lord's  Prayer  of  the  Moslems,  and  is  uni- 
versally regarded  as  the  gem  of  the  whole  book.  It  is 
entitled  "  The  Introduction  ;  Revealed  at  Mecca,"  and 
reads  as  follows  :  "  In  the  name  of  the  most  merciful 
God.  Praise  be  to  God,  the  Lord  of  all  creatures  ;  the 
most  merciful,  the  king  of  the  day  of  judgment.  Thee 
do  we  worship,  and  of  thee  do  we  beg  assistance.  Di- 
rect us  in  the  right  way,  in  the  way  of  those  to 
whom  thou  hast  been  gracious  ;  not  of  those  against 
whom  thou  art  incensed,  nor  of  those  who  go  astray. ' ' 

There  does  not  seem  to  be  any  other  principle  in  the 
arrangement  of  the  chapters  than  that  of  length.  The 
longest  chapter  comes  immediately  after  the  introduc- 
tion and  consists,  in  Sale's  translation,  which  is  here 
followed,  of  many  (34)  pages.  The  shortest  chapter  is 
the  1 1 2th,  and  contains  less  than  two  lines.  Chapter 
second  is  the  real  beginning  of  the  book  and  is  entitled 
"  The  Cow,"  probably  from  the  story  of  the  red  heifer 
that  occurs  in  it.  The  first  part  of  this  chapter  is  as 
follows  :  ' '  Revealed  partly  at  Mecca  and  partly  at 
Medina.  In  the  name  of  the  most  merciful  God  .... 
A.  L.  M.  There  is  no  doubt  in  this  book  ;  it  is  a  di- 
rection to  the  pious,  who  believe  in  the  mysteries  of 


152  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

faith,  who  observe  the  appointed  times  of  prayer,  and 
distribute  alms  out  of  what  we  have  bestowed  upon 
them  ;  and  who  believe  in  that  revelation,  which  hath 
been  sent  down  unto  thee,  and  that  which  hath  been 
sent  down  unto  the  prophets  before  thee,  and  have  firm 
assurance  of  the  life  to  come  ;  these  are  directed  by 
their  I^ord,  and  they  shall  prosper.  As  for  the  un- 
believers, it  will  be  equal  to  them  whether  thou  ad- 
monish them  or  do  not  admonish  them  ;  they  will  not 
believe.  God  hath  sealed  up  their  hearts  and  their 
hearing  ;  a  dimness  covereth  their  sight,  and  they 
shall  suffer  a  grievous  punishment." 

The  letters  "A.  I^.  M."  have  had  many  interpreta- 
tions. The  most  reasonable  one  seems  to  be  that  they 
stand  for  "  Amar  li  Mohammed,"  i.  e.,  "at  the  com- 
mand of  Mohammed."  For  it  is  universally  admitted 
that  the  Koran  is  the  work  of  Mohammed,  and  that  he 
dictated  it  to  an  amanuensis.  There  is  no  evidence 
that  he  himself  could  either  read  or  write. 

The  Koran  from  first  to  last  claims  to  be  direct  from 
God.  Except  in  a  few  passages  where  Mohammed  or 
an  angel  is  represented  as  speaking,  God  is  the  speaker 
throughout,  using  sometimes  the  pronoun  *'I,"  but 
generally  the  plural  of  majesty ' '  we. ' '  The  Koran  itself 
claims  to  be  simply  a  copy,  *'the  original  whereof  is 
written  in  a  table  kept  in  heaven  "  (last  line  of  chapter 
85).  It  also  states  that  the  sacred  book  was  "sent 
down  ' '  by  God  * '  gradually  by  distinct  parcels  ' '  in 
order  that  the  faithful  might  be  the  better  confirmed 
in  their  hearts  thereby.  It  affirms  that  an  angel,  gen- 
erally called  Gabriel,  but  sometimes  the  Holy  Spirit, 
dictated  the  revelation  to  the  Prophet,  who  committed 
it  to  memory  and  did  not  "forget  any  part  thereof 
except  what  God  shall  please"  (chapter  87). 


The  Koran  of  Mohammed  153 

In  chapter  second  is  briefly  stated  the  attitude  of  the 
Koran  towards  Jesus  and  Christians,  and  many  re- 
ferences to  the  subject  occur  in  other  chapters.  "  We 
follow  the  religion  of  Abraham  the  orthodox,  who  was 
no  idolater.  Say,  We  believe  in  God,  and  that  which 
hath  been  sent  down  to  us,  and  that  which  hath  been 
sent  down  unto  Abraham,  and  Ismael,  and  Isaac,  and 
Jacob,  and  the  tribes,  and  that  which  was  delivered 
unto  Moses,  and  Jesus,  and  that  which  was  delivered 
unto  the  prophets  and  their  Lord.  We  make  no  dis- 
tinction between  any  of  them  and  to  God  are  we  re- 
signed." Farther  on  in  the  chapter  frequent  prayer  is 
enjoined,  and  each  believer  is  exhorted  to  "turn,  there- 
fore, thy  face  towards  the  holy  temple  of  Mecca ;  and 
w^herever  ye  be,  turn  your  faces  towards  that  place." 
A  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  is  also  enjoined  and  the  ab- 
staining from  * '  that  which  dieth  of  itself,  and  blood 
and  swine's  flesh  and  that  upon  which  any  other  name 
but  God's  hath  been  invocated.  But  he  who  is  forced 
by  necessity,  not  lusting,  nor  returning  to  transgress,  it 
shall  be  no  crime  in  him  if  he  eat  of  those  things,  for 
God  is  gracious  and  merciful."  In  the  middle  of  the 
chapter  righteousness  is  described  as  follows  :  **  It  is 
not  righteousness  that  ye  turn  your  faces  in  prayer 
towards  the  east  and  the  west,  but  righteousness  is  of 
him  who  believeth  in  God  and  the  last  day,  and  the 
angels,  and  the  scriptures,  and  the  prophets ;  who 
giveth  money  for  God's  sake  unto  his  kindred,  and 
unto  orphans,  and  the  needy,  and  the  stranger,  and 
those  that  ask,  and  for  the  redemption  of  captives ;  who 
is  constant  at  prayer,  and  giveth  alms ;  and  of  those 
who  perform  their  covenant,  when  they  have  cove- 
nanted, and  who  behave  themselves  patiently  in  ad- 
versity, and  hardships,  and  in  time  of  violence  ;  these 


154  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

are  they  who  are  true  and  these  are  they  who  fear 
God." 

War  is  enjoined  against  the  infidels  when  they  "ob- 
struct the  way  of  God"  or  introduce  false  gods.  For 
"temptation  to  idolatry  is  more  grievous  than  to  kill." 
* '  When  they  will  ask  thee  concerning  wine  and  lots ; 
answer,  In  both  there  is  great  sin,  and  also  some 
things  of  use  to  men,  but  their  sinfulness  is  greater 
than  their  use. ' ' 

After  treating  of  many  other  legislative  matters 
much  after  the  fashion  of  the  Pentateuch  and  with 
frequent  reference  to  the  stories  and  incidents  recorded 
in  it,  the  chapter  closes  with  the  prayer:  "O  Lord, 
lay  not  on  us  a  burden  like  that  which  thou  hast  laid 
on  those  who  have  been  before  us ;  neither  make  us, 
O  Lord,  to  bear  what  we  have  not  strength  to  bear,  but 
be  favorable  unto  us,  and  spare  us,  and  be  merciful 
unto  us.  Thou  art  our  patron,  help  us  therefore  against 
the  unbelieving  nations." 

The  third  sura  is  entitled,  "  The  Family  of  Imram," 
which  is  the  name  given  in  the  Koran  to  the  father  of 
the  Virgin  Mary,  and  like  the  second  treats  of  a  great 
variety  of  matters.  The  unity  of  God  is  constantly 
reiterated  in  it,  also  the  value  of  the  Koran  as  the  book 
of  truth,  the  blessedness  of  those  who  accept  it,  and 
the  dreadful  fate  of  those  who  do  not.  "There  is  no 
God  but  God,  the  living,  the  self-subsisting.  .  .  . 
O  Lord,  thou  shall  surely  gather  mankind  together 
unto  a  day  of  resurrection  ;  there  is  no  doubt  of  it,  for 
God  will  not  be  contrary  to  the  promise.  As  for  the 
infidel,  their  wealth  shall  not  profit  them  anything,  nor 
their  children,  against  God  ;  they  shall  be  the  fuel  of 
hell  fire.  .  .  .  For  those  who  are  devout  are  prepared 
with  their  Lord  gardens  through  which  rivers  flow; 


The  Koran  of  Moham^ned  155 

therein  shall  they  continue  forever ;  and  they  shall 
enjoy  wives  free  from  impurity,  and  the  favor  of  God. 
Verily  the  true  religion  in  the  sight  of  God  is  Islam." 
A  few  pages  of  the  chapter  are  devoted  to  matters  con- 
cerning the  Virgin,  and  what  is  said  of  her  is  taken  for 
the  most  part  from  the  various  traditions  of  the  Jews. 

Chapter  four  has  for  its  title  "Women:  Revealed 
at  Medina,"  and  chiefly  treats  of  marriage,  divorce, 
dower,  the  treatment  of  orphans,  and  the  like.  It  be- 
gins, ''O  men,  fear  your  I^ord,  who  hath  created  you 
out  of  one  man,  and  out  of  him  created  his  wife,  and 
from  them  two  hath  multiplied  many  men  and  women ; 
and  fear  God  by  whom  ye  beseech  one  another ;  and 
respect  women  who  have  borne  you,  and  give  the 
orphans  when  they  have  come  to  age  their  substance ; 
and  render  them  not  in  exchange  bad  for  good  ;  and 
devour  not  their  substance  by  adding  it  to  your  own 
substance,  for  this  is  a  great  sin ;  and  if  ye  fear  that  ye 
shall  not  act  with  equity  towards  orphans  of  the  female 
sex,  take  in  marriage  such  other  women  as  please  you, 
two,  or  three,  or  four,  and  no  more.  But  if  ye  fear 
that  ye  cannot  act  equitably  toward  so  many,  marry 
one  only,  or  the  slaves  which  ye  shall  have  acquired. 
This  will  be  easier,  that  ye  swerve  not  from  righteous- 
ness." The  laws  enjoined  in  this  chapter  concerning 
the  treatment  of  women  and  orphans  do  not  differ  ma- 
terially from  those  of  the  Pentateuch,  from  which  they 
are  manifestly  derived. 

The  title  of  the  fifth  sura  is  *' The  Table,"  which 
towards  the  end  of  the  chapter  is  said  to  have  been  let 
down  from  heaven  to  Jesus.  It  is  chiefly  devoted  to 
exhortations  to  follow  the  Koran.  The  law  was  suf- 
ficient, it  is  argued,  until  the  coming  of  Jesus  Christ, 
after  which  the  gospel  was  the  rule.    Both  are  now  set 


156  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

aside  by  the  Koran  because  in  it  thej^  both  come  to 
their  proper  fulfilment. 

Turning  to  the  middle  chapters  of  the  book  we  find 
that  many  of  them  consist  only  of  a  few  pages  and  are 
devoted  in  a  large  degree  to  the  defence  of  the  author 
as  an  apostle  of  God.  They  also  abound  in  fuller  and 
more  vivid  descriptions  of  the  rewards  of  the  faithful 
and  the  fate  of  unbelievers. 

Take,  for  example  chapter  fifty-three,  entitled  ' '  The 
Star,"  which  opens  as  follows :  "By  the  star  when  it 
setteth  ;  your  companion  Mohammed  erreth  not ;  nor 
is  led  astray  ;  neither  doth  he  speak  of  his  own  will. 
It  is  no  other  than  a  revelation  which  hath  been  re- 
vealed unto  him.  One  mighty  in  power,  endued  with 
understanding,  taught  it  him  ;  and  he  appeared  in 
the  highest  part  of  the  horizon.  Afterwards  he  ap- 
proached the  prophet  and  came  near  unto  him ;  until 
he  was  at  the  distance  of  two  bows'  length  firom  him,  or 
yet  nearer  ;  and  he  revealed  unto  his  servant  that  which 
he  revealed.  The  heart  of  Mohammed  did  not  falsely 
represent  that  which  he  saw." 

Chapter  fifty-four  is  entitled  "The  Moon,"  and  be- 
gins :  "The  hour  of  judgment  approaches  ;  and  the 
moon  hath  been  split  in  sunder  ;  but  if  the  unbelievers 
see  a  sign,  they  turn  aside  saying.  This  is  a  powerful 
charm,  and  they  accuse  thee,  O  Mohammed,  of  impos- 
ture, and  follow  their  own  lusts  ;  but  everything  will 
be  immutably  fixed." 

"  The  Inevitable  "  is  the  title  of  the  fifty-sixth  sura, 
which  starts  out  with  a  vivid  description  of  the  last 
judgment  and  of  the  final  destiny  of  the  faithful  and 
the  unfaithful.  "  When  the  inevitable  day  of  judg- 
ment shall  suddenly  come,  no  soul  shall  charge  the  pre- 
diction of  its  coming  with  falsehood  :  it  will  abase  some 


The  Koran  of  Mohammed  157 

and  exalt  others,  when  the  earth  shall  be  shaken  with 
a  violent  shock  ;  and  the  mountains  shall  be  dashed  in 
pieces,  and  shall  become  as  dust  scattered  abroad  ;  and 
ye  shall  be  separated  into  three  distinct  classes :  the 
companions  of  the  right  hand  (how  happy  shall  the 
companions  of  the  right  hand  be  !  );  and  the  companions 
of  the  left  hand  (how  miserable  shall  the  companions 
of  the  left  hand  be  ! ) ;  and  those  who  have  preceded 
others  in  the  faith  shall  precede  them  to  paradise. 
These  are  they  who  shall  approach  near  unto  God  : 
they  shall  dwell  in  gardens  of  delight  :  (There  shall  be 
many  of  the  former  religions  ;  but  few  of  the  last.)  Re- 
posing on  couches  adorned  with  gold  and  precious 
stones  ;  sitting  opposite  to  one  another  thereon.  Youths 
which  shall  continue  in  their  bloom  forever  shall  go 
round  about  to  attend  them,  with  goblets,  and  beakers, 
and  a  cup  of  flowing  wine  ;  their  heads  shall  not  ache 
by  drinking  the  same,  neither  shall  their  reason  be  dis- 
turbed ;  and  with  fruits  of  the  sorts  which  they  shall 
choose,  and  the  flesh  of  birds  of  the  kind  which  they 
shall  desire.  And  there  shall  accompany  them  fair 
damsels  having  large  black  eyes  ;  resembling  pearls 
hidden  in  their  shells  ;  as  a  reward  for  that  which  they 
shall  have  wrought.  They  shall  not  hear  therein  any 
vain  discourse,  or  any  charge  of  sin  ;  but  only  the 
salutation,  Peace  !  Peace !  .  .  .  And  the  com- 
panions of  the  left  hand  (how  miserable  shall  the 
companions  of  the  left  hand  be  !)  shall  dwell  amidst 
burning  winds  and  scalding  water,  under  the  shade  of 
a  black  smoke.  .  .  .  Ye,  O  men,  who  have  erred 
and  denied  the  resurrection  as  a  falsehood,  shall  surely 
eat  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  al  Zakkum  and  shall  fill 
your  bellies  therewith  ;  and  ye  shall  drink  thereon 
boiling  water ;  and  ye  shall  drink  as  a  thirsty  camel 


158  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

drinketh.  This  shall  be  their  entertainment  on  the 
day  of  judgment." 

In  the  fifty-seventh  chapter  special  rewards  are 
promised  to  those  ' '  who  shall  have  contributed  and 
fought  in  defence  of  the  faith  before  the  taking  of 
Mecca.  .  .  .  These  shall  be  superior  in  degree 
unto  those  who  shall  contribute  and  fight  for  the 
propagation  of  the  faith  after  the  above  mentioned 
success. ' ' 

Several  chapters  are  then  devoted  to  the  treatment 
of  women  by  their  husbands;  and  some  of  the  petty  dis- 
agreements of  Mohammed  with  his  own  wives,  God 
is  represented  as  discussing  at  length,  giving  to  the 
prophet  a  dispensation  from  the  law  imposed  on  other 
Moslems,  especially  in  regard  to  the  number  of  his 
wives  and  his  treatment  of  them. 

Farther  on  we  come  upon  suras  that  are  decidedly 
rhapsodic  in  character,  abounding  in  strong  emotion, 
indicating  a  high  degree  of  religious  excitement.  Sura 
seventy-four  begins,  "  O  thou  covered,  arise  and  preach 
and  magnify  the  Lord,  and  cleanse  thy  garments  ;  and 
fly  every  abomination  ;  and  be  not  liberal  in  hopes  to 
receive  more  in  return ;  and  patiently  wait  for  thy 
lyord.  When  the  trumpet  shall  sound,  verily  that  day 
shall  be  a  day  of  distress  and  uneasiness  unto  the 
unbelievers.  ...  I  will  afflict  him  (the  unbeliever) 
with  grievous  calamities :  for  he  hath  devised  and 
prepared  contumelious  expressions  to  ridicule  the 
Koran.  May  he  be  cursed  :  how  maliciously  hath  he 
prepared  the  same !  and  again,  may  he  be  cursed  " 

The  following  is  the  conclusion  of  the  eighty-first 
sura  :  "Verily,  I  swear  by  the  stars  which  are  retro- 
grade, which  move  swiftly,  and  which  hide  themselves; 
and  by  the  night  when  it  cometh  on ;   and  by  the 


The  Koran  of  Mohammed  159 


morning  when  it  appeareth  ;  that  these  are  the  words 
of  an  honorable  messenger,  endued  with  strength,  of 
established  dignity  in  the  sight  of  the  possessor  of  the 
throne,  obeyed  by  the  angels  under  his  authority  and 
faithful ;  and  your  companion  Mohammed  is  not  dis- 
tracted. He  hath  already  seen  him  in  the  clear  horizon  : 
he  hath  suspected  not  the  secrets  revealed  unto  him* 
Neither  are  these  the  words  of  an  accursed  devil. 
Whither,  therefore,  are  you  going  ?  This  is  no  other 
than  an  admonition  unto  all  creatures  ;  unto  him  among 
you  who  shall  be  willing  to  walk  uprightly  ;  but  ye 
shall  not  will,  unless  God  willeth,  the  I/^rd  of  all 
creatures. ' ' 

The  fourth  from  the  last  sura  is  a  curse  upon  the 
uncle  of  Mohammed,  who  opposed  the  establishment 
of  the  new  religion  to  the  utmost  of  his  power.  ''  The 
hands  of  Abu  I,aheb  shall  perish  and  he  shall  perish. 
His  riches  shall  not  profit  him,  neither  that  which  he 
hath  gained.  He  shall  go  down  to  be  burned  into 
flaming  fire  ;  and  his  wife  also,  bearing  wood,  having  on 
her  neck  a  cord  of  twisted  fibres  of  a  palm-tree"  fas 
fuel  for  hell.] 

The  third  from  the  last  sura  is  the  shortest  in  the 
Koran,  and  is  held  in  particular  veneration  by  Moham- 
medans. It  is  said  to  be  equal  in  value  to  a  third  part 
of  the  whole  Koran.  ''Say,  God  is  one  God;  the 
eternal  God  :  he  begetteth  not  and  neither  is  he  be- 
gotten  :  and  there  is  not  any  one  Hke  unto  him." 

Chapters  one  hundred  and  thirteen  and  one  hundred 
and  fourteen,  the  last  two,  are  regarded  by  Moslems 
with  peculiar  favor.  ' '  They  consider  them, ' '  says  Sav- 
ary,  "  as  a  sovereign  specific  against  magic,  luna  influ- 
ences, and  the  temptations  of  the  evil  spirit.  They  never 
fail  to  repeat  them  evening  and  morning." 


1 60  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

The  one  hundred  and  thirteenth  chapter  runs  as 
follows  :  ''Say,  I  fly  for  refuge  unto  the  I^ord  of  the 
daybreak,  that  he  may  deliver  me  from  the  mischief 
of  those  things  which  he  hath  created ;  and  from  the 
mischief  of  the  night  when  it  cometh  on  ;  and  from 
the  mischief  of  women  blowing  on  knots ;  and  from  the 
mischief  of  the  envious,  when  he  envieth."  And  the 
last  chapter  of  the  book  is,  *'  Say,  I  fly  for  refuge  unto 
the  Lord  of  men  ;  the  king  of  men  ;  the  God  of  men,  that 
he  may  deliver  me  from  the  mischief  of  the  whisperer 
who  slyly  withdraweth,  who  whispereth  evil  sugges- 
tions into  the  breasts  of  man  ;  from  genii  and  men." 

From  this  general  survey  of  the  Koran  it  is  easy  to 
see  why  scholars  are  agreed  in  dividing  the  suras  into 
three  general  classes,  according  as  their  contents 
relate  to  the  history  and  condition  of  the  author, 
namely,  those  delivered  during  the  early  part  of  Mo- 
hammed's preaching  in  Mecca,  including  those  from 
about  the  seventy-third  chapter  to  the  close  of  the 
book  ;  the  middle  chapters,  which  were  in  all  prob- 
ability delivered  during  the  latter  part  of  his  sojourn 
in  Mecca  ;  and  the  first  part  of  the  book,  where  the 
chapters  are  probably  composite  in  their  character, 
made  up  of  a  number  of  smaller  discourses  delivered 
during  the  later  years  of  his  life  at  Medina. 

Mohammed  began  his  career  as  a  prophet  in  his 
fortieth  year,  and  continued  to  send  forth  his  revela- 
tions for  over  twenty  years.  It  is  maintained  by  many 
of  his  followers  that  the  earliest  sura  is  the  first  part  of 
the  ninety-sixth,  which  begins  with  the  words,  ' '  Read 
[from  the  scroll  let  down  by  the  angel]  in  the  name  of 
thy  Lord,  who  hath  created  all  things."  Others  ascribe 
that  honor  to  the  seventy -fourth,  the  opening  verses  of 
which  have  already  been  quoted. 


The  Koran  of  Mohammed  i6i 


Mohammed  at  the  outset  did  not  make  any  effort  to 
have  his  utterances  preserved.  Only  after  he  had 
become  a  famous  leader  in  the  community  did  he  begin 
to  think  about  putting  his  revelations  into  a  permanent 
form.  The  entire  Koran  is  so  completely  the  product 
of  Mohammed's  personal  experiences  that  it  cannot  be 
properly  understood  without  taking  into  consideration 
some  of  the  chief  events  in  the  history  of  his  life. 

All  authorities  are  agreed  that  he  first  appeared  in 
Mecca  as  a  prophet  about  6io  a.d.     According  to  the 
best  traditions  he  was  born  in  570,  at  Mecca,  of  very 
poor,  but  worthy  parents,  his  father  belonging  to  the 
most  powerful  of  the  Arabian  tribes  of  that  day,  the 
Koreish,  to  whom  was  entrusted  as  a  matter  of  heredity 
the  guardianship  of  the  Kaaba.  This  sacred  cube-shaped 
heathen  temple  contained  the  famous  black  stone  said 
to  have  been  given  by  an  angel  to  Abraham,  and  was 
the  centre  of  native  religious  rites.    Mohammed's  father 
died  two  months  before  his  birth  and  his  mother,  for 
whom  he  always  had  the  greatest  veneration,  six  years 
after.     Being  adopted  by  his  uncle,  who  was  a  man  of 
large  family  with  scanty  means,  he  spent  his  early 
years  in  tending  sheep,  gathering  wild  berries  in  the 
desert,  and  driving  camels.     On  one  occasion  he  went 
with  his  uncle  on  a  trading  expedition  into  Syria,  and 
there  met  a  monk  whose  discourses  greatly  influenced 
his  subsequent  career.     When  about  twenty-five  years 
of  age,  having  won  by  the  integrity  of  his  conduct  the 
surname  of  "the  faithful,"  on  the  recommendation  of  his 
uncle  he  became  the  business  agent  of  a  wealthy  widow 
of  Mecca,  for  whom  he  made  several  successful  com- 
mercial journeys  to  the  countries  round  about.     In  a 
few  years  he  married  the  widow  and  proved  himself  a 
devoted  and  faithful  husband.    Seven  children  resulted 


1 62  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

from  this  marriage,  but  his  three  sons  died  while  very 
young. 

Relieved  by  his  marriage  to  Khadija  from  the  neces- 
sity of  constant  toil,  Mohammed  was  able  to  devote  his 
time  to  the  development  of  his  religious  sentiments, 
which  had  always  had  a  predominating  influence  over 
his  conduct  and  thoughts.  Every  year  he  retired  for 
long  periods  to  the  fastnesses  of  Mount  Hira,  near 
Mecca,  and  gave  himself  up  to  solitary  meditation  and 
prayer. 

It  is  no  longer  claimed  by  any  well-informed  scholars 
that  Mohammed  independently  produced  the  ideas  and 
doctrines  of  the  Koran.  A  generation  at  least  before 
his  time  the  Jews  had  become  numerous  in  and  around 
Medina.  Indeed,  the  whole  northern  part  of  the 
Arabian  peninsula  began  to  be  dotted  over  with  Jewish 
colonists  soon  after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  Be- 
tween them  and  the  natives  there  had  always  existed  a 
perfectly  free  intercourse.  Beyond  any  doubt  Moham- 
med derived  nearly  all  of  the  stories  and  a  great  part 
of  the  laws  of  the  Koran  from  Jewish  sources.  Chris- 
tianity, though  in  a  crude  and  degenerate  form,  had 
already  penetrated  Arabia  through  Syria  and  Abys- 
sinia, and  he  had  at  least  a  partial  acquaintance  with 
it.  The  native  religion  in  which  he  was  brought  up 
had  long  recognized  Allah  as  the  highest  and  universal 
deity. 

According  to  all  authorities,  when  Mohammed  came 
upon  the  scene  the  religious  life  of  Arabia  had  reached 
a  most  deplorable  state.  Star- worship  of  every  variety 
made  up  the  religion  of  the  masses,  but  even  this 
form  of  religion  had  ceased  to  be  regarded  as  of  any 
vital  moment.  Wine-drinking,  petty  gambling,  sensual 
love,   extortion,  and   robbery  absorbed  the   time  and 


The  Koran  of  Mohammed  163 

energies  of  the  people.  The  status  of  the  great  ma- 
jority of  women  was  little  above  that  of  common  pros- 
titutes. Polygamy,  as  everywhere  in  the  Orient,  was 
the  prevailing  custom  and  many  Arabs  had  no  less 
than  eight  or  ten  wives,  which  they  could  at  any  time 
throw  out  into  the  street  without  food  or  protection, 
entirely  at  their  option.  The  habit  among  the  Bedou- 
ins of  selling  their  new-born  daughters  was  a  gen- 
eral one,  and  went  on  generation  after  generation 
unrebuked. 

A  few  devout  souls  here  and  there,  however,  were 
not  satisfied  with  this  state  of  affairs,  and  Mohammed 
was  one  of  them.  He  saw  the  need  of  a  new  religious 
awakening,  and  by  uniting  the  three  principal  religions 
of  his  time  and  country  he  thought  he  could  produce 
it.  This  idea  is  now  considered  the  key  to  the  Koran. 
Everywhere  in  it  the  Pentateuch  and  the  Psalms  are 
recognized  as  sacred  revelations  and  so  are  also  the 
Gospels.  Moses  and  Christ  are  frequently  declared  to 
be  genuine  prophets.  Resignation  to  the  will  of  Allah, 
the  all- wise  and  almighty,  the  chief  god  of  his  own 
tribe  and  people,  is  the  one  supreme  duty  of  man. 

Judaism,  Christianity,  and  heathenism  all  contained 
for  Mohammed  important  God-given  truths.  In  the 
Koran  he  is  constantly  striving  to  win  over  the  ad- 
herents of  each,  or  else  is  rebuking  them  for  the 
non-recognition  of  his  mission.  That  Mohammed 
thoroughly  believed  in  himself,  at  least  in  the  first 
years  of  his  mission,  is  no  longer  questioned.  At  the 
outset  he  was  probably  only  one  among  a  number  of 
ascetics  seeking  their  own  salvation  rather  than  that 
of  others.  But  being  possessed  of  a  natural  tempera- 
ment that  strongly  addicted  him  to  religious  excite- 
ment, when  what  he  regarded  as  direct  revelation  from 


1 64  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


God  came  to  him  in  his  ecstatic  visions,  he  was  obliged 
to  burst  forth  upon  the  community  as  a  prophet. 

Although  his  wife  at  once  accepted  his  alleged  reve- 
lations, when  he  announced  to  her  that  the  angel 
Gabriel  had  appeared  to  him  in  the  mountain  and 
commanded  him  to  proclaim  the  name  of  Allah,  most 
of  his  relatives  scornfully  rejected  them.  For  four 
years  he  preached  in  secret  to  slaves  and  people  of 
the  lowest  rank,  gaining  only  a  mere  handful  of  fol- 
lowers. Then  the  call  came  to  go  forward  and  publicly 
to  assail  the  superstitions  of  the  Meccans.  This  he  did 
without  fear  or  favor,  exhorting  them  to  turn  from 
their  idols  and  their  sensuality  and  worship  the  only 
real  and  true  God.  The  result  was  that  he  was  obliged 
to  flee  from  Mecca  to  Medina  to  escape  assassination. 
This  occurred  in  622,  and  is  known  as  the  Hegira, 
from  which  all  Moslems  now  reckon  time. 

The  suras  of  this  first  period  breathe  a  genuine 
religious  spirit.  The  great  fundamental  ideas  of  the 
unity  of  God  and  the  duty  of  prayer  and  almsgiving 
were  constantly  insisted  upon  as  the  vital  things  for 
this  life  and  the  life  to  come.  But  when  once  estab- 
lished in  Medina,  the  consciousness  of  power  and  the 
rapid  advance  of  the  new  form  of  religion  under  his 
leadership  made  him  willing  to  maintain  himself  by 
strategy  and  force  and  at  any  cost. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  he  was  at  times  deceitful, 
cunning,  and  revengeful.  In  one  respect,  at  least,  he 
used  his  authority  as  a  prophet  to  make  provision  for 
the  flesh,  excepting  himself  from  the  restrictions  re- 
garding women  that  were  imposed  upon  others,  as  the 
Koran  explicitly  states.  In  common  with  his  age  he 
believed  in  signs  and  omens,  and  had  many  other  super- 
stitious beliefs.     Yet  in   general   we  may   say   that, 


Joseph  SmitJis  Book  of  Mormon       165 

judged  by  the  standards  of  his  time,  the  cause  of  re- 
hgion  has  had  few  more  earnest  or  sincere  devotees. 
The  Koran  will  always  stand  as  a  fitting  monument  to 
one  of  the  world's  master  spirits. 

k.  Joseph  Smith's  Book  of  Mormon.— In  the 
year  1830  there  was  published  at  Palmyra,  a  little 
village  in  what  was  then  called  the  Wilderness  of 
Western  New  York,  the  first  edition  of  a  bible  which 
has  since  reached  a  circulation,  it  is  asserted,  of  several 
millions,  and  has  been  printed  in  nearly  all  the  leading 
languages  of  our  time.  For  many  years  missionaries 
have  been  sent  to  all  parts  of  the  civilized  world  to 
spread  abroad  a  knowledge  of  its  contents,  and  they 
never  were  so  active  or  so  numerous  as  at  present. 

The  book  is  about  the  size  of  the  New  Testament, 
and  purports  to  be  "The  Sacred  History  of  Ancient 
America  from  the  Earliest  Ages  After  the  Flood  to  the 
Beginning  of  the  Fifth  Century  of  the  Christian  Era." 
The  title  of  the  volume  is  ' '  The  Book  of  Mormon  ;  an 
account  written  by  the  Hand  of  Mormon  upon  Plates 
taken  from  the  Plates  of  Nephi. ' '  The  title-page  of  the 
first  edition  also  bore  the  inscription,  **  Joseph  Smith, 
Jun.,  Author  and  Proprietor,"  but  in  all  subsequent 
editions  this  has  been  changed  to,  "Translated  by 
Joseph  Smith,  Jun." 

Immediately  after  the  title-page  comes  the  following 
ajG&davit,  signed  by  Oliver  Cowdery,  David  Whitmer, 
and  Martin  Harris:  "Be  it  known  unto  all  nations, 
kindreds,  tongues,  and  people  unto  whom  this  work 
shall  come,  that  we,  through  the  grace  of  God  the 
Father,  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  have  seen  the 
plates  which  contain  this  record,  which  is  a  record 
of  the  people  of  Nephi,  and  also  of  the  Lamanites, 
their  brethren,  and  also  of  the  people  of  Jared,  who 


1 66  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


came  from  the  tower  of  which  hath  been  spoken  ;  and 
we  also  know  that  they  have  been  translated  by  the 
gift  and  power  of  God,  for  his  voice  hath  declared  it 
unto  us  ;  wherefore  we  know  of  a  surety  that  the  work 
is  true.  And  we  also  testify  that  we  have  seen  the 
engravings  which  are  upon  the  plates  ;  and  they  have 
been  shown  unto  us  by  the  power  of  God,  and  not 
man.  And  we  declare  with  words  of  soberness,  that 
an  angel  of  God  came  down  from  heaven,  and  he 
brought  and  laid  before  our  eyes,  that  we  beheld  and 
saw  the  plates,  and  the  engravings  thereon  ;  and  we 
know  that  it  is  by  the  grace  of  God  the  Father,  and 
our  lyord  Jesus  Christ,  that  we  beheld  and  bear  record 
that  these  things  are  true  ;  and  it  is  marvellous  in  our 
eyes,  nevertheless  the  voice  of  the  lyOrd  commanded  us 
that  we  should  bear  record  of  it ;  wherefore  to  be  obe- 
dient unto  the  commandments  of  God,  we  bear  testi- 
mony of  these  things.  And  we  know  that  if  we  are 
faithful  to  Christ,  we  shall  rid  our  garments  of  the 
blood  of  all  men,  and  be  found  spotless  before  the 
judgment-seat  of  Christ,  and  shall  dwell  with  him 
eternally  in  the  heavens.  And  the  honor  be  to  the 
Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  which 
is  one  God.     Amen." 

Attached  to  this  affidavit  is  another,  introduced  by 
the  use  of  the  same  phraseology,  signed  by  four  mem- 
bers of  the  Whitmer  family,  the  father  and  two  brothers 
of  Joseph  Smith,  Jun.,  the  translator  of  the  work,  and 
Hiram  Page,  son-in-law  of  Peter  Whitmer,  Sen.,  in 
which  they  bear  witness  that  ' '  we  have  seen  and 
hefted,  and  know  of  a  surety  that  the  said  Smith  has 
got  the  plates  of  which  we  have  .spoken." 

Joseph  Smith,  Jun.,  himself  thus  summarized  the 
contents  of  the  book  :   ' '  The  histor}'  of  America  is  un- 


Joseph  SmitJis  Book  of  Mormon       167 

folded  from  its  first  settlement  by  a  colony  that  came 
from  the  Tower  of  Babel  to  the  beginning  of  the  fifth 
century  of  the  Christian  Era.  We  are  informed  by 
these  records  that  America,  in  ancient  times,  has  been 
inhabited  by  two  distinct  races  of  people.  The  first 
were  called  Jaredites,  and  came  directly  from  the  Tower 
of  Babel.  The  second  race  came  directly  from  the  city 
of  Jerusalem,  about  six  hundred  years  before  Christ. 
The  Jaredites  were  destroyed  about  the  time  that  the 
Israelites  came  from  Jerusalem.  The  principal  nation 
of  the  second  race  fell  in  battle  toward  the  close  of  the 
fourth  century.     The  remnant  are  the  Indians. 

' '  This  book  also  tells  us  that  our  Saviour  made  his 
appearance  upon  this  continent  after  his  resurrection ; 
that  he  planted  the  gospel  here  in  all  its  fulness  and 
richness  and  power  and  blessing  ;  that  they  had  apos- 
tles, prophets,  pastors,  teachers,  and  evangelists ;  the 
same  order,  the  same  priesthood,  the  same  ordinances, 
gifts,  powers,  and  blessing,  as  were  enjoyed  on  the 
Eastern  Continent ;  that  the  people  were  cut  off  in 
consequence  of  their  transgressions ;  that  the  last  of 
their  prophets  who  existed  among  them  was  com- 
manded to  write  an  abridgment  of  their  prophecies, 
history,  etc.,  and  to  hide  it  up  in  the  earth." 

This  so-called  Bible  of  the  Western  Continent  con- 
sists of  fifteen  books,  and  claims  to  have  been  written  by 
authors  who  were  divinely  appointed  to  rule  over  the 
people  of  their  day,  and  to  make  a  record  of  their 
doings  upon  metallic  plates  prepared  for  the  purpose. 
The  books  vary  greatly  in  size.  The  book  of  Alma  in 
recent  editions  of  the  work  is  divided  into  sixty-three 
chapters,  and  covers  nearly  a  hundred  pages;  while 
the  book  of  Enos  has  only  one  chapter,  and  covers 
a  little  over  two  pages. 


1 68  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

The  first  book  in  the  volume  is  entitled  ' '  The  First 
Book  of  Nephi,  His  Reign  and  Ministry,"  and  has 
twenty-two  chapters.  The  text  is  preceded  by  the  fol- 
lowing synopsis  :  ' '  An  account  of  Lehi  and  his  wife, 
Sariah,  and  his  four  sons,  being  called  (beginning  at 
the  eldest)  Iranian,  lyemuel,  Sam,  and  Nephi.  The 
Lord  warns  Lehi  to  depart  out  of  the  land  of  Jeru- 
salem, because  he  prophesieth  unto  the  people  concern- 
ing their  iniquity  ;  and  they  seek  to  destroy  his  life. 
He  taketh  three  da3^s'  journey  into  the  wilderness  with 
his  family.  Nephi  taketh  his  brethren  and  returns  to 
the  land  of  Jerusalem  after  the  record  of  the  Jews. 
The  account  of  their  sufferings.  They  take  the  daugh- 
ters of  Ishmael  to  wife.  They  take  their  families  and 
depart  into  the  wilderness.  Their  sufferings  and  afflic- 
tions in  the  wilderness.  The  course  of  their  travels. 
They  come  to  the  large  waters.  Nephi' s  brethren  re- 
belleth  against  him.  He  confoundeth  them  and  build- 
eth  a  ship.  They  call  the  name  of  the  place  Bountiful. 
They  cross  the  large  waters  into  the  promised  land, 
etc.  This  is  according  to  the  account  of  Nephi ;  or  in 
other  words,  I,  Nephi,  wrote  this  record." 

* '  The  large  waters ' '  referred  to  are  the  Red  Sea  and 
the  Pacific  Ocean.  "  The  promised  land  "  is  the  west- 
ern coast  of  South  America. 

The  very  first  passages  of  the  first  chapter  of  this 
book  well  illustrate  the  style  of  all  the  books,  and,  ex- 
cept where  the  ideas  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
are  made  use  of,  the  general  nature  of  their  contents  : 
**  I,  Nephi,  having  been  born  of  goodly  parents,  there- 
fore I  was  taught  somewhat  in  all  the  learning  of  my 
father  ;  and  having  seen  many  afflictions  in  the  course 
of  my  days — nevertheless,  having  been  highly  favored 
of  the  Lord  in  all  my  days  ;  yea,  having  had  a  great 


Joseph  SmitJis  Book  of  Mormon        1 69 


knowledge  of  the  goodness  and  the  mysteries  of  God, 
therefore  I  make  a  record  of  my  proceedings  in  my 
days ;  yea,  I  make  a  record  in  the  language  of  my 
father,  which  consists  of  the  learning  of  the  Jews  and 
the  language  of  the  Egyptians.  And  I  know  that  the 
record  that  I  make  is  true  ;  and  I  make  it  with  mine 
own  hand  ;  and  I  make  it  according  to  my  knowledge. 
"  For  it  came  to  pass,  in  the  commencement  of  the 
first  year  of  the  reign  of  Zedekiah,  king  of  Judah  (my 
father  Lehi  having  dwelt  at  Jerusalem  in  all  his  days), 
and  in  that  same  year  there  came  many  prophets, 
prophesying  unto  the  people,  that  they  must  repent, 
or  the  great  city  of  Jerusalem  must  be  destroyed. 
Wherefore,  it  came  to  pass  that  my  father  Lehi,  as  he 
went  forth,  prayed  unto  the  Lord,  yea,  even  with  all  his 
heart,  in  behalf  of  his  people. 

"  And  it  came  to  pass,  as  he  prayed  unto  the  Lord, 
there  came  a  pillar  of  fire  and  dwelt  upon  a  rock  before 
him  ;  and  he  saw  and  heard  much  ;  and  because  of  the 
things  which  he  saw  and  heard,  he  did  quake  and 
tremble  exceedingly. 

"  And  it  came  to  pass  that  he  returned  to  his  own 
house  at  Jerusalem  ;  and  he  cast  himself  upon  his  bed, 
being  overcome  with  the  spirit  and  the  things  which 
he  had  seen  ;  and  being  thus  overcome  with  the  spirit, 
he  was  carried  away  in  a  vision,  even  that  he  saw  the 
heaven  open,  and  he  thought  he  saw  God  sitting  upon 
his  throne,  surrounded  with  numberless  concourses  of 
angels  in  the  attitude  of  singing  and  praising  God. 

"  And  it  came  to  pass  that  he  saw  one  descending 
out  of  the  midst  of  heaven,  and  he  beheld  that  his 
lustre  was  above  that  of  the  sun  at  noonday  ;  and  he 
also  saw  twelve  others  following  him,  and  their  bright- 
ness did  exceed  that  of  the  stars  in  the  firmament ;  and 


1 7o  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

they  came  down  and  went  forth  upon  the  face  of  the 
earth ;  and  the  first  came  and  stood  before  my  father, 
and  he  gave  him  a  book,  and  bade  him  that  he  should 
read. 

"And  it  came  to  pass,  that,  as  he  read,  he  was  filled 
with  the  spirit  of  the  I.ord,  and  he  read  saying,  Wo, 
wo  unto  Jerusalem !  for  I  have  seen  thy  abominations, ' ' 
etc. 

In  chapter  ii.  we  have  a  description  of  several  ap- 
pearances of  the  Virgin  Mary  to  Nephi.  He  also  saw, 
he  affirms,  '  *  the  Redeemer  of  the  world,  of  whom  my 
father  had  spoken  ;  and  I  also  beheld  the  prophet  who 
should  prepare  the  way  before  him.  And  the  I,amb  of 
God  went  forth  and  was  baptized  of  him  ;  and  after  he 
was  baptized,  I  beheld  the  heavens  open,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost  came  down  out  of  heaven  and  abode  upon  him 
in  the  form  of  a  dove."  Many  other  events  in  the  life 
of  Jesus  are  here  referred  to  including  the  crucifixion. 

Chapter  xiii.  opens  with  a  covert  attack  upon  the 
Church  of  Rome.  "  And  it  came  to  pass  that  I  saw 
among  the  nations  of  the  Gentiles  the  foundation  of  a 
great  church.  And  the  angel  said  unto  me.  Behold 
the  foundation  of  a  church,  which  is  most  abominable 
above  all  other  churches,  which  slayeth  the  saints  of 
God,  yea,  and  tortureth  them  and  bindeth  down  and 
yoketh  them  with  a  yoke  of  iron,  and  bringeth  them 
down  into  captivity.  And  it  came  to  pass  that  I  beheld 
this  great  and  abominable  church  ;  and  I  saw  the  devil 
that  he  was  the  foundation  of  it.  And  I  also  saw  gold, 
and  silver,  and  silks,  and  scarlets,  and  fine-twined 
linen,  and  all  manner  of  precious  clothing  ;  and  I  saw 
many  harlots. 

"  And  the  angel  spake  unto  me,  saying,  Behold  the 
gold,  and  silver,  and  the  silks,  and  the  scarlets,  and 


Joseph  SmitJis  Book  of  Mormon       1 7 1 


the  fine-twined  linen,  and  the  precious  clothing,  and  the 
harlots,  and  the  desires  of  this  great  and  abominable 
church,"  etc. 

Many  other  chapters  contain  tirades  on  the 
same  theme  and,  for  the  most  part,  the  language  of 
the  book  of  Revelation  is  employed  to  express  them. 
These  views  regarding  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
were  comm.only  held  at  the  time  of  the  appearance  of 
the  Book  of  Mormon  throughout  the  region  of  Western 
New  York. 

At  the  close  of  chapter  xviii.  Nephi  describes  the 
mutiny  that  occurred  on  the  ship  as  they  were  crossing 
"the  large  waters."  For  his  brothers  bound  him  and 
purposed  to  throw  him  overboard.  But  when  they 
found  that  in  the  tempest  that  arose  they  could  not 
steer  the  ship  without  him,  they  loosed  him  and 
allowed  him  again  to  assume  command. 

"I  took  the  compass"  he  says,  "and  it  did  work 
whither  I  desired  it.  And  it  came  to  pass  that  I  prayed 
unto  the  I^ord  ;  and  after  I  had  prayed,  the  winds  did 
cease,  and  the  storm  did  cease,  and  there  was  a  great 
calm.  And  it  came  to  pass  that  I,  Nephi,  did  guide 
the  ship,  that  we  sailed  again  towards  the  promised 
land.  And  it  came  to  pass  that  after  we  had  sailed  for 
the  space  of  many  days,  we  did  arrive  to  the  promised 
land,  and  we  went  forth  upon  the  land,  and  did  pitch 
our  tents  ;  and  we  did  call  it  the  promised  land." 

Then  follows  a  vivid  description  of  the  marvellous 
plenty  of  the  country.  Cows  and  oxen  and  horses  ex- 
isted there  in  great  abundance.  '*  And  we  did  find  all 
manner  of  ore,  both  of  gold,  and  of  silver,  and  of  cop- 
per." Out  of  the  ore  plates  were  made  which  upon 
was  engraved  the  record  ot  the  people,  in  particular 
the  visions  and  prophecies  of  Nephi.     The  rest  of  this 


1^2  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

first  book  of  Nephi  is  taken  up  with  an  account  oi 
what  was  put  upon  these  plates.  The  principal  part 
.of  it  consists  of  literal  extracts  from  the  prophecy  of 
Isaiah  as  recorded  in  the  Old  Testament,  though  no 
acknowledgment  is  made  of  this  fact. 

The  second  book  of  Nephi  is  much  like  the  first  in 
subject-matter.  Leaving  out  the  visions  and  prophecies 
in  it,  w^e  have  an  account  of  the  death  of  Lehi,  of  the 
rebellion  of  Nephi' s  brethren  against  him,  the  warn- 
ings of  the  Lord  to  Nephi  to  depart  into  the  wilder- 
ness, and  his  various  experiences  after  getting  there. 
The  creation  of  the  world  and  the  fall  of  Adam  as  we 
have  it  in  Genesis  is  described  in  the  second  chapter. 

The  book  of  Jacob  comes  next.  This  was  written 
by  a  younger  brother  of  Nephi.  For  Lehi  had  two 
sons,  Jacob  and  Joseph,  born  to  him  just  before  the 
family  embarked  upon  the  ship  to  cross  "the  large 
waters  "  for  the  promised  land.  Both  these  sons  grew 
up  to  be  "  prophets  and  priests  unto  God,"  and  it  was 
through  this  Joseph  that  a  "righteous  branch"  was 
preserved  from  the  Joseph  of  Egypt  to  Joseph  Smith, 
Jun.,  the  translator  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  and  the 
divinely  appointed  head  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in 
modern  times.  Jacob  succeeded  to  the  rule  after  the 
death  of  Nephi  and  added  his  own  plates  to  those  of 
Nephi. 

The  book  of  Jacob  abounds  in  vigorous  denuncia- 
tion, not  only  of  pride  and  vainglory,  but  especially  of 
polygamy.  A  "sore  curse  even  unto  destruction"  is 
called  down  upon  all  who  practise  it.  "  Behold  David 
and  Solomon,"  it  says,  "truly  had  many  wives  and 
concubines,  which  thing  was  abominable  before  me, 
saith  the  Lord  ;  wherefore,  thus  saith  the  Lord,  I  have 
led  this  people  forth  out  of  the  land  of  Jerusalem,  by 


Joseph  SmitJis  Book  of  Mormon       173 

the  power  of  mine  arm,  that  I  might  raise  up  unto  me 
a  righteous  branch  from  the  fruit  of  the  loins  of  Joseph. 
Wherefore,  I,  the  Lord  God,  will  not  vSuffer  that  this 
people  shall  do  like  unto  them  of  old.  Wherefore  my 
brethren,  hear  me,  and  harken  to  the  word  of  the 
Lord  ;  for  there  shall  not  any  man  among  you  have 
save  it  be  one  wife ;  and  concubines  he  shall  have 
none ;  for,  I,  the  Lord  God,  delighteth  in  the  chastity 
of  women.  And  whoredoms  are  an  abomination  before 
me  ;  thus  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts.  Wherefore,  this 
people  shall  keep  my  commandments,  saith  the  Lord 
of  Hosts  ;  or  cursed  be  the  land  for  their  sakes. ' '  The 
same  views  are  expressed  in  the  book  of  Mosiah  and 
in  the  book  of  Ether. 

Jacob,  when  he  comes  to  die,  hands  over  the  plates 
to  his  son  Enos,  who  writes  the  next  book.  In  it  he 
tells  us  of  the  wrestles  he  had  with  God  before  he  re- 
ceived a  remission  of  his  sins.  Then  he  describes  his 
own  efforts  and  those  of  his  people  to  bring  the  wicked 
followers  of  his  uncle  Laman,  who  had  already  had 
their  white  skins  changed  to  copper-red  because  of 
their  sins,  back  to  the  true  faith. 

"But,"  he  says,  "our  labors  were  vain;  their 
hatred  was  fixed,  and  they  were  led  by  their  evil  na- 
ture that  they  became  wild,  and  ferocious,  and  a  blood- 
thirsty people ;  full  of  idolatry  and  filthiness,  feeding 
upon  beasts  of  prey  ;  dwelling  in  tents,  and  wandering 
about  in  the  wilderness  with  a  short  skin  girdle  about 
their  loins  and  their  heads  shaven  ;  and  their  skill  was 
in  their  bow,  and  in  the  cimeter,  and  the  axe.  And 
many  of  them  did  eat  nothing  save  it  was  raw  meat  ; 
and  they  were  continually  seeking  to  destroy  us." 
Here  we  have  a  very  matter-of-fact  description  of  the 
Indians  of  Western  New  York  in  the  days  of  Joseph 


174  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


Smith.     Many  references  to  their  life  and  habits  occur 
in  other  parts  of  the  work. 

The  book  of  Amni  tells  us  how  the  Nephites  came 
to  discover  the  people  of  Zarahemla,  who  "  came  out  of 
Jerusalem  at  the  time  that  Zedekiah,  King  of  Judah, 
was  carried  away  captive  into  Babylon."  They  cast 
their  lot  with  the  followers  of  Nephi  under  the  rule  of 
King  Mosiah.  From  the  engravings  on  a  large  stone 
found  in  Zarahemla  it  is  discovered  that  the  land  had 
once  been  occupied  by  one  Cariantumr  whose  "first 
parents  came  out  from  the  tower  at  the  time  the  Lord 
confounded  the  languages  of  the  people."  Owing  to 
his  disobedience  of  the  commandments  of  the  Lord  and 
the  wickedness  of  his  people,  they  had  all  been  cut  off 
"  and  their.bones  lay  scattered  in  the  land  northward." 
This  was  a  common  view  in  Western  New  York  of  the 
origin  of  the  many  mounds  containing  human  relics  to 
be  found  in  that  part  of  the  country. 

The  book  of  Alma,  the  longest  in  this  bible,  devotes 
itself  chiefly  to  the  secular  affairs  of  the  people.  Great 
battles  and  massacres  are  described  in  it.  The  coming 
of  Christ  is  predicted,  but  this  is  opposed  by  one 
Korihor,  who  uses  arguments  that  were  probably  taken 
from  Thomas  Paine' s  Age  of  Reason.  The  result  is 
that  he  is  struck  dumb  for  his  blasphemy. 

Near  the  middle  of  the  book  we  have  several  exhorta- 
tions to  repentance  which  show  how  familiar  the  writer 
was  with  the  methods  of  the  old-time  Methodist  camp- 
meeting.  Amulek,  the  last  speaker  at  such  a  gather- 
ing, closes  his  harangue  as  follows:  "Therefore  may 
God  grant  unto  you,  my  brethren,  that  ye  may  begin 
to  exercise  your  faith  unto  repentance,  that  ye  begin  to 
call  upon  His  holy  name,  that  He  would  have  mercy 
upon  you ;  yea,  cry  unto  Him  for  mercy ;  for  He  is 


Joseph  SmitJis  Book  of  Mormon       175 


mighty  to  save  ;  yea,  humble  yourselves,  and  continue 
in  prayer  unto  Him  ;  cry  unto  Him  when  you  are  in 
your  fields ;  yea,  over  all  your  flocks  ;  cry  unto  Him 
in  your  houses,  yea,  over  all  your  household,  both 
morning,  midday,  and  evening;  yea,  cry  unto  Him 
against  the  power  of  your  enemies  ;  yea,  cry  unto  Him 
against  the  Devil,  who  is  an  enemy  to  all  righteous- 
ness. And  now  as  I  said  unto  you  before,  as  ye  have 
had  so  many  witnesses,  therefore  I  beseech  of  you, 
that  ye  do  not  procrastinate  the  day  of  your  repentance 
until  the  end  ;  for  after  this  day  of  life,  which  is  given 
unto  us  to  prepare  for  eternity,  behold,  if  we  do  not 
improve  our  time  while  in  this  hfe,  then  cometh  the 
night  of  darkness,  wherein  there  can  be  no  labor  per- 
formed. Ye  cannot  say,  when  ye  are  brought  to  that 
awful  crisis,  that  I  will  repent,  that  I  will  return  to  my 
God.  Nay,  ye  cannot  say  this;  for  that  same  spirit 
which  doth  possess  your  bodies  at  the  time  that  ye  go 
out  of  life,  that  same  spirit  will  have  power  to  possess 
your  body  in  that  eternal  world." 

In  the  book  of  Helaman  we  have  the  first  of  the 
attacks  upon  Free  Masonry  to  be  found  in  the  Book  of 
Mormon.  It  expresses  the  strong  antipathy  to  the 
organization  that  prevailed  in  Western  New  York  at 
the  time  the  book  appeared,  owing  to  the  abduction 
and  alleged  murder  in  1826  of  one  William  Morgan, 
a  mechanic  of  Batavia,  by  some  of  the  Masonic  frater- 
nity. The  reason  for  the  act,  it  was  alleged,  was  the 
fact  that  Morgan  was  preparing  a  book  to  divulge  the 
secrets  of  the  order. 

The  book  of  Nephi  III.,  besides  giving  an  account  of 
the  secular  events  of  this  reign,  describes  the  wonderful 
phenomena  that  accompanied  the  birth  of  Christ  and 
his  visit  to  the  Nephites  after  the  Resurrection.     He 


176  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

not  only  preached  to  them  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  but 
also  many  of  his  other  discourses  recorded  in  the 
gospels.  He  broke  bread  among  them  and  performed 
many  of  the  same  miracles  that  are  'described  at  length 
in  the  New  Testament.  He  chose  twelve  apostles, 
who  taught  the  multitude  and  carried  on  the  work  of 
spreading  the  gospel.  Things  proceeded  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  New  Testament  records  show  they  did 
in  Palestine. 

In  the  book  of  Mormon,  one  of  the  last  books  in  this 
volume,  and  the  one  that  gives  name  to  the  entire  col- 
lection, we  are  told  how  in  the  year  384  a.d.,  just 
before  a  great  battle  in  the  land  of  Cumorah,  in  which 
an  army  of  230,000  Nephites  was  slain  and  the  race 
practically  annihilated,  "  I  [Mormon]  made  this  record 
out  of  the  plates  of  Nephi  and  hid  up  in  the  hill  of 
Cumorah  all  the  records  which  had  been  entrusted  to 
me  by  the  hand  of  the  Lord,  save  it  were  these  few 
plates  which  I  gave  to  my  son  Moroni."  It  was  these 
golden  plates  that  Joseph  Smith  alleges  he,  on  Septem- 
ber 22,  1827,  under  the  direction  of  an  angel,  dug  up 
on  the  top  of  what  is  now  known  as  Mormon  Hill,  in 
the  township  of  Manchester,  N.  Y.,  about  four  miles 
from  the  village  of  Palmyra. 

The  plates,  as  he  describes  them,  were  about  eight 
inches  long  and  seven  wide,  and  were  connected  to- 
gether by  rings  so  as  to  form  a  volume  about  six  inches 
thick.  Hieroglyphic  characters  in  an  unknown  lan- 
guage, which  Smith  declared  to  be  Reformed  Egyp- 
tian, covered  both  sides  of  the  plates.  By  the  aid  of 
two  stones,  joined  together  into  a  sort  of  spectacles, 
which  he  found  in  the  box,  and  called  Urim  and 
Thummim,  he  affirms  that  he  was  able  to  decipher 
the  record  on  the  plates  and  translate  it  into  English. 


Joseph  Sfnil/is  Book  of  Mormon       177 


This  was  taken  down  by  an  amanuensis,  and  makes 
the  present  text  of  the  Book  of  Mormon. 

Smith  tells  us  that  "multitudes"  tried  to  get  the 
plates  away  from  him,  but  he  held  on  to  them.  As 
fast  as  he  translated  them  he  handed  them  back  to  the 
angel,  who  keeps  them  in  a  box  with  other  plates  that 
have  not  yet  been  unsealed. 

The  22d  of  September,  1827,  was  not,  according  to 
Smith,  the  first  time  that  he  had  known  of  the  existence 
of  these  plates.  In  his  autobiography  published  in  the 
Milleyinial  Star  2.\.  Nauvoo,  Illinois,  in  1838,  he  afl&rms 
that  on  the  night  of  September  21,  1823,  while  he  was 
praying  to  God  for  the  forgiveness  of  his  sins,  his  room 
suddenly  became  illuminated  with  a  great  light.  A 
person  clothed  in  a  robe  of  exquisite  whiteness  called 
him  by  name  and  announced  himself  to  be  a  messenger 
sent  from  God.  Then,  as  Smith  describes  it,  the  angel 
told  him  where  there  was  a  book  deposited,  written  upon 
golden  plates,  giving  an  account  of  the  former  inhabi- 
tants of  this  continent  and  the  source  from  whence 
they  sprang.  He  also  said  that  the  fulness  of  the 
Everlasting  Gospel  was  contained  in  it,  as  delivered 
by  the  Saviour  to  the  ancient  inhabitants.  During  the 
same  vision  the  angel  described  to  him  the  ' '  two  stones 
in  a  silver  bow  ' '  that  were  deposited  with  the  plates,  the 
possession  of  which  "constituted  seers"  in  ancient 
times.  By  the  use  of  these  stones  God  would  enable 
him  to  read  what  was  engraved  upon  the  plates  and 
translate  it  into  English. 

Under  the  direction  of  the  angel  he  went  at  once  to 
the  hill  and  found  the  big  stone  in  the  hollow  of  which 
the  plates  were  concealed.  But  he  made  no  effort  to 
gain  possession  of  them  as  the  angel  informed  him  that 
the  time  for  bringing  them  out  had  not  yet  arrived. 


178  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

neither  would  till  four  years  from  that  time.  But  he 
was  told  to  come  every  year  to  the  spot  ' '  until  the  time 
should  come  for  obtaining  the  plates. ' ' 

Joseph  Smith's  father  soon  after  the  publication  of 
the  Book  of  Mormon  gave  out  a  vivid  description  of  the 
way  in  which  the  plates  were  finally  procured  and  the 
account  was  confirmed  by  his  mother  in  her  Biographi- 
cal Sketches  of  Joseph  Smith  and  his  Progenitors,  pub- 
lished some  years  later.  The  father  says  in  this 
description  that  "He  [Joseph]  procured  a  horse  and 
light  wagon  with  a  chest  and  pillow  case,  and  pro- 
ceeded punctually  with  his  wife  to  find  the  hidden 
treasure.  When  they  had  gone  as  far  as  they  could 
with  the  wagon,  Joseph  took  the  pillow  case  and  started 
for  the  rock.  Upon  passing  a  fence  a  host  of  devils 
began  to  screech  and  scream,  and  make  all  sorts  of 
hideous  yells,  for  the  purpose  of  terrifying  him  and 
preventing  the  attainment  of  his  object  ;  but  Joseph 
was  courageous  and  pursued  his  way  in  spite  of 
them." 

On  arriving  at  the  rock,  "  with  the  aid  of  superhuman 
power ' '  he  pried  up  the  lid  and  secured  the  first  or  upper- 
most article,  '  *  putting  it  carefully  into  the  pillow  case 
before  laying  it  down."  Immediately  the  lid  fell  back 
into  its  original  position  and  an  angel  warned  him  not 
to  seek  for  anything  more  at  the  present  time.  He  was 
also  warned  not  to  allow  any  one  to  touch  the  article  he 
had  * '  for  if  they  did,  they  would  be  knocked  down  by 
some  superhuman  power."  On  getting  back  to  the 
fence  Joseph  was  met  by  another  host  of  devils  w^ho 
yelled  and  shrieked  much  louder  than  the  former,  and 
one  of  them  struck  him  a  blow  on  the  side  '  *  where  a 
black  and  blue  spot  remained  three  or  four  days." 
When    Joseph    reached    home   with    the    article   * '  I 


Joseph  Smitlis  Book  of  Mormon       179 


weighed  it,"  says  his  father,  "and  it  weighed  thirty 
pounds. ' ' 

As  soon  as  the  Book  of  Mormon  was  published  it 
attracted  converts  and  Smith  immediately  organized 
them  into  the  Church  of  Christ  of  I^atter  Day  Saints, 
placing  himself  at  their  head.  At  the  time  of  his  death 
at  Carthage,  Illinois,  where  he  and  his  brother  Hyram 
were  assassinated  by  a  mob  in  June,  1844,  he  had 
founded  a  New  Jerusalem  of  some  fifteen  thousand 
souls  at  Nauvoo  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  and 
was  universally  recognized  by  his  followers  as  the 
apostle  and  prophet  of  God.  Brigham  Young  correctly 
expressed  the  position  of  the  whole  Mormon  Church 
when  he  said  of  him  shortly  after  his  death:  ''Every 
spirit  that  confesses  that  Joseph  Smith  is  a  prophet, 
that  he  lived  and  died  a  prophet,  and  that  the  Book  of 
Mormon  is  true,  is  of  God,  and  every  spirit  that  does 
not  is  of  Antichrist." 

The  Latter  Day  Saints  have  always  believed  and 
believe  to-day  that  Smith  obtained  the  plates  in  the 
manner  already  described,  and  that  the  Book  of  Mormon 
is  of  a  purely  divine  origin.  Of  those  who  do  not  ac- 
cept this  view  of  the  matter  some  hold  that  the  work  is 
the  joint  product  of  a  Congregational  minister  once 
living  at  New  Salem,  Ohio,  by  the  name  of  Solomon 
Spaulding,  who  supplied  the  historical  part,  and  a 
Baptist  minister  by  the  name  of  Sidney  Rigdon,  who 
filled  in  the  religious  part  and  brought  out  the  book 
under  Joseph  Smith's  name  and  with  his  sanction. 
This  opinion  is  strongly  advocated  by  W.  A.  Linn  in 
his  exhaustive  work  on  the  Story  of  the  Mormons  from 
the  Date  of  their  Origin  to  the  Year  igoi. 

In  spite  of  all  that  has  been  written  in  support  of 
this  view  by  Linn  and  others,  nobody  has  yet  been 


i8o  The  Sphei^e  of  Religion 

able  to  show  that  Smith  ever  heard  of  Spaulding  or  his 
alleged  novel  about  the  origin  of  the  American  Indians. 
No  tangible  proof  of  the  existence  of  such  a  novel  was 
forthcoming  till  1885,  when  President  Fairchild,  ot 
Oberlin  College,  claimed  that  he  had  accidentally  dis- 
covered the  manuscript  of  it  in  the  library  of  a  friend 
in  Honolulu.  He  himself  admits,  however,  that  there 
is  little  or  no  resemblance  between  Spaulding' 3  story 
entitled  Ma7iiiscript  Fou7id  and  the  Book  of  Mormon 
either  in  style  or  subject-matter,  except  that  they  both 
have  considerable  to  say  about  the  Ten  Lost  Tribes. 
Dr.  Hurlburt,  in  whose  house  the  manuscript  was 
found,  says  of  it:  "  I  should  as  soon  think  the  Book  of 
Revelation  was  written  by  the  author  of  Don  Quixote, 
as  that  the  writer  of  this  manuscript  was  the  author  ot 
the  Book  of  Mormon."  The  only  similarity  that  he 
was  able  to  find  between  them  was  that  they  both  claim 
to  have  been  dug  up  out  of  the  ground. 

As  to  Sidney  Rigdon  the  evidence  is  good  that  he 
had  only  the  slightest  acquaintance  with  Smith  until 
after  the  establishment  of  the  Church  of  Latter  Day 
Saints,  when  he  became  one  of  his  converts. 

The  more  rational  view  of  the  origin  of  the  Book  of 
Mormon,  and  the  one  now  held  b3'  almost  all  com- 
petent and  unprejudiced  investigators,  is  well  expressed 
by  Dr.  I.  W.  Riley  in  his  extremely  able  work  on 
The  Founder  of  Mormonisni,  when  he  says:  "Joseph 
Smith's  record  of  the  Indians  is  a  product  indigenous 
to  the  New  York  *  Wilderness,'  and  the  authentic  work 
of  the  *  author  and  proprietor. '  Outwardly,  it  reflects 
the  local  color  of  Palmyra  and  Manchester,  inwardly 
its  complex  of  thought  is  a  replica  of  Smith's  muddled 
brain." 

In  other  words,   barring  out  the  choicest  parts  of 


Joseph  Smitlis  Book  of  Mi 


ormoTi 


the  Old  Testament  and  the  copious  extracts  from  the 
gospels  that  we  find  in  the  book,  the  history  of  Joseph 
Smith  before  the  work  appeared  and  his  history  after 
show  beyond  reasonable  doubt  that  he  produced  it  by 
the  use  of  his  own  natural  powers.  The  very  first 
words  of  the  first  chapter  reveal  the  fact  that  the  acts 
of  Nephi  are  the  acts  of  Joseph,  and  so  on  to  the  closing 
passages  of  the  last  chapter. 

The  conversion  of  Joseph  Smith  occurred  near  Pal- 
myra in  1820,  when  he  w^as  in  his  fifteenth  year.  He 
had  previously  been  noted  ' '  only  for  his  indolent  and 
vagabondish  character,  and  his  habits  of  exaggeration- 
and  untruthfulness."  His  father  was  a  shiftless  farmer 
and  root-digger,  who  had  wandered  from  Sharon,  Ver- 
mont, where  Joseph  was  born  December  23,  1805,  over 
into  Ontario  County,  New  York,  and  there  taken  up  a 
land  claim.  Both  Joseph's  father  and  mother  were 
strong  believers  in  heavenly  visions,  faith  cures,  witch- 
craft, and  demoniacal  possessions.  The  son  had  grown 
up  in  the  atmosphere  of  these  ideas,  and  he  took  to 
them  as  to  his  natural  breath.  Besides  this,  in  his 
youth  he  was  given  to  epileptic  seizures,  and  many 
times  he  seriously  injured  himself  while  in  this  state. 
On  several  occasions  he  twisted  his  limbs  out  of  joint 
and  severely  bruised  his  body,  having  at  the  time  no 
consciousness  of  the  fact. 

He  grew  up  in  a  most  extraordinary  religious  en- 
vironment. Western  New  York  in  his  boyhood  was 
swept  by  wave  after  wave  of  religious  excitement,  and 
later  came  to  be  generally  known  as  the  Burnt  Dis- 
trict. A  multitude  of  contending  sects  existed  on  every 
hand.  Near  Ithaca  there  were  seven  different  kinds 
of  Baptists,  and  during  Smith's  stay  in  Palmyra  four 
schisms  occurred  among  the  Methodists — the  sect  to- 


1 82  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

ward  which  he  was  himself  more  particularly  inclined. 
At  Canandaigua,  only  ten  miles  from  his  home,  the 
Fox  sisters  by  their  extraordinary  rapping  seances 
dumbfounded  their  auditors  and  laid  the  foundations 
of  modem  spiritualism.  William  Miller  at  Rochester 
had  already  successfully  established  the  sect  of  Second 
Adventists.  Jemima  Wilkinson,  who  claimed  to  have 
been  raised  from  the  dead  to  preach  the  gospel  and  to 
be  able  to  work  miracles,  had  purchased  14,000  acres 
of  land  in  Yates  County  and  established  a  colony  there 
of  her  followers. 

What  wonder  that  young  Smith,  who  had  had  re- 
markable experiences  of  his  own,  early  began  to  medi- 
tate upon  the  ways  and  means  of  carrying  out  some 
similar  project.  He  was  constantly  having  visions, 
and  his  conversion  occurred  in  one  of  them.  This  he 
describes  as  follows  :  ' '  After  I  had  retired  into  a  place 
where  I  had  previously  designed  to  go,  having  looked 
around  me  and  finding  myself  alone,  I  kneeled  down 
and  began  to  offer  up  the  desires  of  my  heart  unto 
God.  I  had  scarcely  done  so,  when  immediately  I 
was  seized  upon  by  some  power  which  entirely  over- 
came me,  and  had  such  astonishing  influence  over  me 
as  to  bind  my  tongue  so  that  I  could  not  speak. 

' '  Thick  darkness  gathered  around  me,  and  it  seemed 
to  me  for  a  time  as  if  I  was  doomed  to  sudden  destruc- 
tion. But  exerting  all  my  powers  to  call  upon  God  to 
deliver  me  out  of  the  power  of  this  enemy  which  had 
seized  upon  me,  and  at  the  very  moment  when  I  was 
ready  to  sink  into  despair  and  abandon  myself  to  de- 
struction, not  to  an  imaginary  ruin,  but  to  the  power 
of  some  actual  being  from  the  unseen  world,  who  had 
such  a  marvellous  power  as  I  had  never  before  felt  in 
any  being.     Just  at  this  moment  of  great  alarm,  I  saw 


Joseph  Smith's  Book  of  Mormon        183 

a  pillar  of  light  exactly  over  my  head,  above  the  bright- 
ness of  the  sun,  which  descended  gradually  until  it  fell 
upon  me.  It  no  sooner  appeared  than  I  found  myself 
delivered  from  the  enemy  which  held  me  bound. 
When  the  light  rested  upon  me,  I  saw  two  personages 
whose  brightness  and  glory  defy  all  description,  stand- 
ing above  me  in  the  air.  One  of  them  spake  unto  me, 
.  .  .  When  I  came  to  myself  again  I  found  myself 
lying  on  my  back  looking  up  into  heaven." 

In  the  second  of  his  recorded  visions,  the  one  of 
September  21,  1823,  in  which  he  was  told  about  the 
existence  of  the  plates,  he  affirms  that  at  midnight, 
while  he  was  engaged  in  '  *  prayer  and  supplication  to 
Almighty  God  for  forgiveness  of  all  his  sins,"  the 
room  became  *'  lighter  than  at  noonday,"  and  a  heav- 
enly messenger  came  to  his  bedside  and  described  the 
plates  so  vividly  "  that  I  could  see  the  place  where  the 
plates  were  deposited,  and  that  so  clearly  and  dis- 
tinctly, that  I  knew  the  place  again  when  I  visited 
it."  This  vision  was  repeated  three  times  the  same 
night  and  many  times  afterwards. 

In  addition  he  was  repeatedly  .told  in  these  early 
visions  that  none  of  the  existing  religious  denomina- 
tions were  acknowledged  of  God  as  his  church  and 
kingdom.  "I  was  expressly  commanded,"  he  says, 
"to  go  not  after  them  ;  at  the  same  time  receiving  a 
promise  that  the  fulness  of  the  gospel  should  at  some 
future  time  be  made  known  unto  me."  Can  it  be  won- 
dered at  under  the  circumstances  that  he  set  himself  to 
work  to  create  some  sort  of  a  consistent  whole  out  of 
these  and  similar  experiences,  making  use  of  all 
other  available  data  that  he  had  at  his  command  ? 

It  is  true  that  Smith  lived  in  the  backwoods  and  had 
little  schooling,  but  he  still  was  alive  to  what  was 


1 84  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

going  on  in  the  community  and  had  access  to  a  few 
inexpensive  books  that  were  in  common  circulation. 
Besides  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
he  undoubtedly  had  the  New  England  Primer,  which 
nearly  every  child  of  that  period  thumbed  from  cover 
to  cover  and  was  supposed  to  know  almost  by  heart. 
It  contained  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith, 
which,  as  Dr.  Riley  has  shown,  is  closely  paralleled 
in  the  speech  of  Nephi  to  his  brethren.  Then,  as  has 
already  been  pointed  out,  he  probably  was  more  or  less 
familiar  with  Paine' s  Age  of  Reason.  Beyond  all  ques- 
tion he  had  every  opportunity  to  acquaint  himself  by 
reading  or  by  hearsay  with  the  creeds  and  disciplines 
of  the  numerous  sects  that  were  laboring  to  make 
converts  in  that  region. 

Smith's  Lamanites  actually  have  the  very  same  be- 
liefs that  existed  in  his  own  locality.  In  harmony 
with  his  times  he  takes  it  for  granted  that  the  primitive 
red  men  had  the  idea  of  one  great  Spirit  and  the  various 
notions  that  flow  from  it.  The  modern  student  of  the 
subject  would  not  agree  with  this  position.  For  he 
maintains  that  such  beliefs  arose  among  these  people 
only  after  long  famiharity  with  the  doctrines  of 
Christianity. 

The  theory  that  the  Indians  were  the  remnant  of  the 
Ten  Lost  Tribes  of  Israel  was  an  idea  current  almost 
from  the  first  settlement  of  the  country.  The  early 
Spanish  priests  identified  the  natives  with  them,  and  so 
did  a  Jewish  rabbi  as  early  as  1650.  John  Eliot,  "  the 
Apostle  to  the  Indians  in  Massachusetts,"  wrote  an 
essay  in  favor  of  it.  Roger  WiUiams,  William  Penn, 
and  Jonathan  Edwards  advocated  this  view,  and  Smith 
must  have  been  familiar  with  it  from  early  boyhood. 

But  the  most  striking  thing  in  Smith's  surroundings 


Joseph  Smitlis  Book  of  Mormon       185 

was  the  large  number  of  mysterious  aboriginal  remains 
that  abounded  on  every  hand.  "  Along  the  shores  of 
Lake  Ontario  there  was  a  series  of  ancient  earthworks, 
entrenched  hills,  and  occasional  mounds  or  tumuli." 
Human  bones  and  relics  had  been  found  on  an  em- 
bankment in  Canandaigua.  Livingston  County  had 
a  big  artificial  ditch  of  sixteen  acres,  and  Seneca 
County  had  ancient  caches  full  of  art  relics  and  frag- 
ments of  pottery.  Near  Geneva  were  the  remains  of  a 
so-called  Indian  castle,  and  in  the  vicinity  of  Smith's 
home  spear-heads  and  hatchets  had  been  dug  up  in 
abundance. 

In  early  youth  Smith  had  been  a  money  digger,  and 
Indian  mounds  were  the  most  attractive  and  profitable 
places  in  which  to  search  for  hidden  treasures.  As 
Dr.  Riley  has  well  said,  "He  [Smith]  mixed  up  what  he 
knew  about  living  Indians  with  what  he  could  gather 
about  dead  ones,  and  the  amalgam  was  the  angel 
Moroni's  '  brief  sketch  concerning  the  aboriginal 
inhabitants  of  this  country.'  " 

That  Smith  was  capable  of  composing  the  Book  of 
Mormon  from  the  material  at  his  disposal  is  also  seen 
by  comparing  its  style  and  matter  with  other  works 
that  he  unquestionably  produced.  No  sooner  had  he 
completed  his  labors  on  the  Book  of  Mormon  than 
he  went  to  work  on  the  Visions  of  Moses,  and  six 
months  later  he  brought  out  the  Writings  of  Moses. 
Later  he  completed  a  Revised  Translation  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments.  In  1842,  as  the  editor  of  Times 
and  Seasons,  he  published  a  "Translation  of  Some 
Ancient  Records,  that  have  fallen  into  our  hands  from 
the  Catacombs  of  Egypt,  the  Writings  of  Abraham 
while  he  was  in  Egypt,  called  the  Book  of  Abraham, 
written  by  his  own  hand  upon  Papyrus."     This  was  a 


1 86  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

"  book  "  that  lie  had  made  up  from  the  hieroglyphics 
found  in  the  casings  of  some  Egyptian  mummies  that 
he  had  persuaded  the  church  to  buy  for  him  of  a  show- 
man passing  through  the  place.  From  the  day  he 
assumed  the  title  of  "  Prophet,  Seer,  and  Revelator  " 
at  the  age  of  eighteen  to  the  end  of  his  career  he  was 
constantly  claiming  to  receive  direct  communications 
from  the  Almighty  on  almost  every  conceivable  sub- 
ject. These  "revelations"  were  collected  together 
into  what  he  called  the  Doctrine  and  Covenants  of 
the  Church  of  the  Latter  Day  Saints. 

In  all  of  these  productions  we  have  unmistakable  evi- 
dence from  the  style  of  composition  and  general  subject- 
matter  that  their  author  is  identical  with  the  writer  of 
the  Book  of  Mormon  and  of  the  affidavits  that  were 
signed  by  the  eleven  witnesses  regarding  the  plates 
upon  which  it  was  engraved. 

Before  the  book  was  completed  Smith  began  to  make 
preparations  for  carrying  out  the  idea  that  he  was  the 
lineal  descendant  of  Joseph,  the  prime  minister  of  an- 
cient Egypt,  and  the  divinely  appointed  head  of  all 
Latter  Day  Saints.  On  May  15,  1829,  he  took  Cow- 
dery,  his  amanuensis,  with  him  into  the  woods  and 
earnestly  besought  the  Lord  to  inform  him  about  how 
to  carry  out  the  baptism  mentioned  in  the  plates. 
Speedily  John  the  Baptist,  he  says,  appeared  to  them 
in  a  cloud  of  light,  **  and  having  laid  his  hands  upon 
us,  he  ordained  us,  saying  unto  us :  '  Upon  you,  my 
fellow-servants,  in  the  name  of  the  Messiah,  I  confer 
the  priesthood  of  Aaron,  which  holds  the  keys  of  the 
ministering  angels,  and  of  the  Gospel  of  repentance, 
and  of  baptism  by  immersion  for  the  remission  of 
sins.'  " 

Later  he  received  from  Peter,  James,  and  John,  he 


Joseph  SmitJis  Book  of  Mormon        187 

asserts,  **  the  power  of  laying  on  of  hands  for  the  gift 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  thus  supplanting  even  the  bishops 
of  the  Roman  Church,  who  get  their  power  through 
a  succession  of  popes  and  not  direct  from  heaven. 

When  Smith  wanted  anything  done  he  got  a  reve- 
lation for  it  just  as  he  thought  was  the  custom  of  all 
prophets.  He  was  often  in  such  a  state  of  mind  that 
he  could  not  distinguish  between  subjective  illusions 
and  objective  realities.  It  seems  quite  impossible,  there- 
fore, in  his  case  to  draw  the  line  between  self-deception 
and  conscious  duplicity. 

His  remarkable  success  in  attracting  followers,  over 
many  of  whom  he  exerted  a  strong  hypnotic  influence, 
was  attended  not  only  with  a  growing  sensualism 
which  ultimately  led  to  his  secret  adoption  of  polygamy , 
but  also  developed  a  colossal  egotism  which  surpassed 
all  bounds.  He  soon  came  to  think  and  talk  of  him- 
self, says  Dr.  Riley,  as  *' the  smartest  man  in  Amer- 
ica," and  fully  equal  to  any  conceivable  position  or 
task. 

In  1843  he  went  to  Washington  and  presented  to 
President  Van  Buren  a  bill  for  $1,381, 044. 55>^  to  com- 
pensate himself  for  the  damages  to  his  property  and 
character  that  he  had  received  from  the  United  States. 
As  Congress  that  winter  did  not  make  the  necessary 
appropriation  to  pay  it,  he  had  his  followers  nominate 
himself  for  President.  One  of  his  last  addresses  was 
entitled,  ''  Views  of  the  Powers  and  Policy  of  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States,"  in  which  there  are 
quotations  not  only  in  English,  but  also  in  Italian, 
Dutch,  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  and  Chaldee,  so  intro- 
duced as  to  convey  the  impression  that  it  was  a  matter 
of  utter  indifference  to  him  in  what  language  he  chose 
to  express  his  thoughts. 


1 88  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

Josiah  Quincy  tells  us  in  his  Figures  of  the  Past  that 
when  he  and  Charles  Francis  Adams  visited  the  Mor- 
mon colony  at  Nauvoo  in  1843,  Smith  explained  to 
them  the  inscription  on  his  Egyptian  mummy  by  say- 
ing :  *'  That  is  the  handwriting  of  Abraham,  the  Father 
of  the  Faithful.  This  is  the  autograph  of  Moses,  and 
these  lines  were  written  by  his  brother  Aaron.  Here 
we  have  the  earliest  account  of  the  creation,  from  which 
Moses  composed  the  book  of  Genesis." 

Smith's  own  written  assertion  concerning  himself  is: 
"  I  know  more  than  all  the  world  put  together.  .  .  . 
I  cut  the  Gordian  knot  of  powers,  and  I  solve  mathe- 
matical problems  of  universities  with  truth,  diamond 
truth,  and  God  is  my  right-hand  man." 

When  we  consider  what  a  conglomeration  of  ideas 
the  Book  of  Mormon  really  is  and  Joseph  Smith's 
history  before  and  after  its  appearance  ;  when  we  recall 
the  fact  that  it  was  nearly  seven  years  from  the  first 
vision  of  the  plates  to  the  actual  publication  of  the 
book,  and  that  during  a  large  part  of  this  time,  at  least, 
he  was  cogitating  upon  its  contents,  it  seems  wholly 
unnecessary  to  assume  that  the  work  was  beyond  his 
natural  powers. 

The  influence  that  the  book  has  had  and  still  has 
over  many  minds  lies  not  only  in  the  descriptions  of 
the  marvellous  that  abound  in  it,  but  also  in  the  great 
and  vital  truths  the  author  has  incorporated  in  the  body 
of  the  work  taken  literally  from  such  parts  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments  as  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah  and 
the  discourses  of  Jesus. 

I.Mrs.  Eddy  and  "Science  and  Health."— An- 
other book  that  has  recently  been  exalted  to  the  dig- 
nity of  a  bible  by  its  devotees  is  Mrs.  Mary  Baker 
G.  Kddy's  work  entitled  Science  and  Health,  with  Key 


Mrs.  Eddy  and  ''  Science  and  Health  "   189 

to    the    Scriptures,   the    first    edition    of   which    was 
published  in  I^ynn,  Mass.,  in  1875. 

As  the  founder  of  the  sect  of  Christian  Scientists  and 
the  pastor  of  its  Mother  Church,  Mrs.  Eddy  made  not 
long  ago  the  following  announcement : 

"  Humbly,  and  as  I  believe,  divinely  directed,  I 
hereby  ordain  the  Bible,  and  Science  and  Health, 
with  Key  to  the  Scriptures,  to  be  hereafter  the  only 
Pastor  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  throughout 
our  land  and  in  other  lands. 

"  From  this  date,  the  Sunday  services  of  our  de- 
nomination shall  be  conducted  by  Readers,  in  lieu  of 
pastors.  Bach  church,  or  society  formed  for  Sunday 
worship,  shall  elect  two  Readers  :  a  male,  and  a  female. 
One  of  these  individuals  shall  open  the  meeting  by 
reading  the  hymns,  and  chapter  (or  portion  of  the 
chapter)  in  the  Bible,  lead  in  silent  prayer,  and  repeat 
in  concert  with  the  congregation  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
.  .  .  The  First  Reader  shall  read  from  my  Book, 
Science  and  Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures, 
alternately  in  response  to  the  congregation,  the  Spiri- 
tual interpretation  of  the  I^ord's  Prayer ;  also  shall  read 
all  the  selections  from  Science  and  Health  referred 
to  in  the  Sunday  I^essons.  The  Reader  of  the  Scrip- 
tures shall  name,  at  each  reading,  the  book,  chapter, 
and  verses.  The  Reader  of  Science  and  Health,  with 
Key  to  the  Scriptures,  shall  commence  by  announcing 
the  full  title  of  this  book,  with  the  name  of  its  author, 
and  add  in  the  announcement  the  Christian  Science 
text-book." 

At  the  same  time  Mrs.  Eddy  prescribed  that  ' '  this 
form  shall  also  be  observ^ed  at  the  Communion  service." 
And  when  she  arranged  a  monthly  service  for  the  chil- 
dren, she  desired  that  "  a  vSermon  shall  be  preached  to 


igo  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

the  children,  from  selections  taken  from  the  Scriptures 
and  Science  and  Health,  especially  adapted  to  the 
occasion,  and  read  after  the  manner  of  the  Sunday 
service." 

In  prescribing  the  duties  of  those  who  are  authorized 
by  her  to  teach  Christian  Science,  she  says,  "  they 
shall  steadily  and  patiently  strive  to  educate  their 
students  in  conformity  to  the  unerring  wisdom  and 
love  of  God,  and  shall  enjoin  upon  them  habitually  to 
study  His  revealed  word,  the  Scriptures,  and  Science 
and  Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures."  Thus  we 
see  that  whenever  Christian  Scientists  meet  together 
for  worship  or  instruction,  the  Bible  and  Science  and 
Health  are  put  by  their  leader  upon  equal  terms. 
The  objection  made  by  some  of  her  followers  that  this 
is  not  done  cannot  be  allowed. 

In  August,  1906,  Mrs.  Eddy's  book  had  already 
reached  the  434th  edition  of  one  thousand  copies  each, 
according  to  the  reports  of  the  Society  having  the  pub- 
lication in  charge,  77,000  copies  of  the  work  having 
been  sold  the  previous  year.  New  editions  of  the 
work  are  constantly  being  issued  to  meet  the  increas- 
ing demand.  At  one  time  the  book  was  published  in 
two  volumes,  probably  in  imitation  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  but  of  late  it  has  appeared  in  one  volume, 
often  in  heavy  Oxford  India  bible  paper.  It  now  con- 
sists of  about  600  pages.  A  concordance  is  published 
to  accompany  it  of  about  the  same  size  and  price  as  the 
book  itself. 

The  different  editions  of  Science  and  Health  vary 
greatly  in  the  arrangement  of  the  chapters.  There  is 
little  or  no  logical  connection  between  them,  and  it 
was  probably  never  intended  that  there  should  be  any. 
Each  chapter  easily  stands  alone  by  itself,  and  each 


Mrs.  Eddy  and  ''  Science  and  Health  "191 


chapter  sets  forth  by  constant  reiteration  Mrs.  Kddy's 
fundamental  ideas.  In  many  of  the  later  editions  the 
first  chapter  is  entitled  Prayer,  but  some  of  the  earlier 
editions  open  with  the  chapter  on  The  Science  of 
Being,  which  begins  as  follows  : 

"  In  the  year  1866  I  discovered  metaphysical  healing, 
and  named  it  Christian  Science.  The  Principle  thereof 
is  divine  and  apodictical,  governing  all,  and  it  reveals 
the  grand  verity  that  one  erring  mind  controlling 
another  (through  whatever  medium)  is  not  Science 
governed  by  God,  the  unerring  Mind. 

"When  apparently  near  the  confines  of  the  death 
valley,  I  learned  certain  truths  :  that  all  real  being  is 
the  Divine  Mind  and  idea  ;  that  the  Science  of  Divine 
Mind  demonstrates  that  Life,  Truth,  and  I^ove  are  all- 
powerful  and  ever-present ;  that  the  opposite  of  Science 
and  Truth,  named  Error,  is  the  false  supposition  of  a 
false  sense.  This  sense  is,  and  involves  a  belief  in, 
matter  that  shuts  out  the  true  sense  of  Spirit.  The 
great  facts  of  omnipotence  and  omnipresence,  of  Spirit 
possessing  all  powers  and  filling  all  space,— these  facts 
contradicted  forever,  to  my  understanding,  the  notion 
that  matter  can  be  actual." 

In  this  passage  Mrs.  Eddy  describes  how  she  came 
to  discover  what  she  claims  to  be  the  way  in  which 
Christ  regarded  this  universe,  and  the  ultimate  prin- 
ciple upon  which  he  based  all  of  his  labors  for  the 
elevation  of  men.  This  ultimate  principle,  she  affirms, 
is  the  truth  that  the  Divine  Mind  and  its  ideas  are  the 
only  actualities.  Hence,  every  one  who  holds  that  the 
knowledge  of  Christ  is  valid  knowledge,  as  she  does,  is 
a  Christian  Scientist,  and  must  maintain  that  matter 
in  all  its  forms  has  no  reality.  Its  alleged  existence  is 
an  illusion  of  the  senses.     Sin,  sickness,  and  death,  not 


1 92  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

being  ilie  ideas  of  the  Divine  Mind,  cannot  have  any 
reality.  They  are  simply  the  false  ideas  of  our  mor- 
tal minds  and  are  to  be  banished  from  our  thoughts 
forever. 

Mrs.  Eddy  claims  to  have  received  these  truths  di- 
rect from  Christ.  ' '  No  human  tongue  or  pen, ' '  she  says, 
"has  suggested  the  contents  of  Science  and  Health, 
nor  can  tongue  or  pen  overthrow  it.  Whatever  men 
may  now  think  of  it,  its  truths  will  remain  for  the 
Christ-inspired  to  discern  and  follow." 

Jesus,  wherever  he  went,  says  Mrs.  Eddy,  "demon- 
strated the  power  of  the  Divine  Science  to  heal  mortal 
minds  and  bodies."  And  it  is  the  greatest  need  of 
this  age  that  his  disciples  should  literally  follow  his 
command,  "  Heal  the  sick,  raise  the  dead,  cleanse  the 
lepers,  cast  out  demons."  This  injunction  is  stamped 
on  the  cover  of  every  copy  of  Science  and  Health  as 
giving  the  keynote  of  its  entire  contents. 

These  views  are  reiterated  again  and  again  through- 
out this  chapter.  Only  a  page  or  two  beyond  the 
passage  first  quoted  we  read  :  ' '  The  only  realities  are 
the  Divine  Mind  and  its  ideas."  "  Sin,  sickness,  and 
death  are  comprised  in  a  belief  in  matter."  "  Because 
Spirit  is  real  and  harmonious,  everything  inharmonious 
— sin,  sickness,  death— is  the  opposite  of  Spirit,  and 
must  be  the  contradiction  of  reality,  must  be  unreal." 

"  Nothing  hygienic,"  says  Mrs.  Eddy,  "  can  exceed 
the  healing  power  of  mind.  By  mind  alone  I  have 
prevented  disease,  preserved  and  restored  health, 
healed  organic  as  well  as  acute  ailments  in  their  sever- 
est forms,  elongated  shortened  limbs,  relaxed  rigid 
muscles,  restored  decaying  bones  to  healthy  conditions, 
brought  back  the  lost  substances  of  the  lungs  and 
caused  them  to  resume  their  proper  functions. ' ' 


Mrs,  Eddy  and  "  Science  and  Health  "193 

A  little  farther  on,  Mrs.  Eddy  describes  what  she 
means  by  * '  mortal  mind  "  :  "  Usage  classifies  both  evil 
and  good  together  as  mind ;  therefore,  to  be  under- 
stood, I  will  call  sick  and  sinful  humanity  mortal  mind, 
— meaning  by  this  term,  the  flesh  that  is  opposed  to 
Spirit,  human  error  and  evil  in  contradistinction  to 
Goodness  and  Truth,  Matter  is  the  primitive  belief  of 
mortal  mind,  that  has  no  cognizance  of  Spirit.  To 
mortal  mind  substance  is  matter  and  evil  is  good." 

"  Understanding  spiritual  law,  and  knowing  there  is 
no  law  of  matter,  Jesus  said  :  '  These  signs  shall  follow 
them  .that  believe  :  they  shall  take  up  serpents  ;  and  if 
they  drink  any  deadly  thing,  it  shall  not  hurt  them. 
They  shall  lay  hands  on  the  sick,  and  they  shall  re- 
cover.' Jesus'  promise  was  perpetual.  Had  it  been 
given  only  to  his  immediate  disciples,  the  Scriptural 
passage  would  readjF^z^,  not  them'' 

In  the  chapter  on  Physiology,  Mrs.  Eddy  affirms 
that  ''  Anatomy,  physiology,  treatises  on  health, — sus- 
tained by  whatever  is  termed  material  law, — are  the 
husbandmen  of  sickness  and  disease.  It  is  proverbial 
that  as  long  as  you  read  medical  works  you  will  be 
sick."  *'  Because  Science  is  at  war  with  physics,  even 
as  Truth  is  at  war  with  error,  the  old  schools  will 
oppose  it.  When  there  were  fewer  doctors,  and  less 
thought  was  given  to  sanitary  subjects,  there  were 
better  constitutions  and  less  disease.  In  olden  times 
whoever  heard  of  dyspepsia,  cerebro-spinal  meningitis, 
hay-fever,  and  rose-cold  ?  " 

' '  What  an  abuse  of  nature  to  say  that  a  rose,  the 
smile  of  God,  can  produce  suffering.  The  joy  of  its 
presence,  its  beauty  and  modesty,  should  uplift  the 
thought  and  destroy  any  possible  fever.  It  is  profane 
to  fancy  that  the  sweetness  of  clover  and  breath  of 


1 94  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

new-mown  hay  may  cause,  like  snuff,  sneezing  and 
nasal  pangs." 

' '  The  primitive  privilege,  to  take  no  thought  about 
food,  left  the  stomach  and  bowels  free  to  act  in  obe- 
dience to  nature,  and  gave  the  gospel  a  chance  to  be 
seen  in  its  glorious  effects  upon  the  body.  A  ghostly 
array  of  diseases  was  not  kept  before  the  imagination. 
Fewer  books  on  digestion,  and  more  '  sermons  in  stone 
and  good  in  everything  '  gave  better  health  and  greater 
longevity  to  our  forefathers.  When  the  mechanism 
of  the  human  mind  goes  on  undisturbed  by  fear, 
selfishness,  or  malice,  disease  cannot  enter  and  gain  a 
foothold." 

**  Shall  a  regular  practitioner,"  continues  Mrs.  Eddy, 
*'  treat  all  the  cases  of  organic  disease,  and  the  Chris- 
tian Scientist  lay  his  hand  only  on  hysteria,  hypo- 
chondria, or  hallucination?  One  disease  is  no  more 
real  than  another.  All  disease  is  the  result  of  hallu- 
cination, and  can  carry  its  ill  effects  no  further  than 
mortal  mind  maps  out.  Facts  are  stubborn  things. 
Christian  Science  finds  the  decided  type  of  acute 
disease,  however  severe,  quite  as  ready  to  yield  as 
the  less  distinct  type  and  chronic  forms  of  disease^ 
It  handles  the  most  malignant  contagion  with  perfect 
assurance. ' ' 

''  You  can  even  educate  a  healthy  horse  so  far  in 
physiology  that  he  will  take  cold  without  his  blanket ; 
whereas  the  wild  animal,  left  to  his  instincts,  sniffs  the 
wind  with  delight.  Kpizootics]  is  an  evolved  ailment, 
that  a  natural  horse  never  has." 

"  I  have  discerned  disease  in  the  human  mind,  and 
recognized  the  patient's  fear  of  it,  many  weeks  before 
the  so-called  disease  made  its  appearance  in  the  body. 
Disease  being  a  belief, — a  latent  creation  of  mind,  be- 


Mrs.  Eddy  and  "  Science  and  Health  "  195 

fore  it  appears  as  matter,  —I  am  never  mistaken  in  my 
scientific  diagnosis  of  disease." 

* '  We  walk  in  the  footsteps  of  Truth  and  I^ove  by 
following  the  example  of  our  Master,  and  having  the 
understanding  of  metaphysics.  Christianity  is  its 
basis ;  and  physiology,  that  pins  our  trust  to  matter 
instead  of  God,  is  directly  opposed  to  it. "  "  We  are 
Christian  Scientists  only  as  we  quit  our  hold  upon 
material  things,  and  grasp  the  spiritual,— until  we  have 
left  all  for  Christ." 

In  the  chapter  on  Imposition  and  Demonstration 
Mrs.  Eddy  says:  *%et  us  rid  ourselves  of  the  belief 
that  man  is  a  separate  intelligence  from  God,  and  obey 
the  unerring  principle  of  Life  and  Love.  Jesus  acted 
boldly  against  the  accredited  evidence  of  the  senses, 
against  Pharisaical  creeds  and  practices.  He  refuted 
all  opponents  with  his  healing  power.  We  never  read 
that  Jesus  made  a  diagnosis  of  a  disease,  in  order  to 
discover  some  means  of  healing  it.  He  never  asked  if 
it  were  acute  or  chronic.  He  never  recommended  at- 
tention to  laws  of  health,  never  gave  drugs,  never 
prayed  to  know  if  God  were  willing  that  man  should 
live.  He  understood  man  to  be  an  immortal,  whose 
life  is  in  God, — not  that  man  has  two  lives,  one  to  be 
destroyed  and  the  other  to  be  made  indestructible." 

''Jesus  established  his  church,  and  maintained  his 
mission,  on  the  basis  of  Christian  healing.  He  taught 
his  followers  that  his  religion  had  a  Principle  that 
could  cast  out  errors,  and  heal  both  the  sick  and  the 
sinful.  He  claimed  no  intelligence,  action,  or  life 
separate  from  God.  Despite  the  persecutions  this 
brought  upon  him,  he  used  his  divine  power  to  save 
men  both  bodily  and  spiritually."  "As  in  Jesus' 
days,  tyranny  and  pride  need  to  be  whipped  out  of 


196  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

the  Temple,  while  humility  and  Divine  Science  are 
welcomed  in." 

' '  The  Man  of  Sorrows  best  understood  the  nothing- 
ness of  material  life  and  intelligence,  and  the  mighty 
actuality  of  all-inclusive  Mind.  These  are  the  two 
cardinal  points  of  Mind-healing,  or  Christian  Science. 
The  highest  earthly  representative  of  God,  speaking  of 
human  ability  to  reflect  divine  power,  prophetically 
said  to  his  disciples,  '  The  works  that  I  do  shall  ye  do 
also.'  " 

The  following  extracts  from  the  chapter  on  Healing 
and  Teaching  give  a  fair  illustration  of  its  general 
contents  : 

' '  Fear  is  the  foundation  of  all  disease. "  "  Remember 
that  all  is  Mind.  You  are  only  seeing  and  feeling  a 
belief,  whether  it  be  cancer,  deformity,  consumption, 
or  fracture  that  you  deal  with."  ''  Sickness  is  a  dream 
from  which  the  patient  needs  to  be  awakened."  *'  In- 
struct the  sick  that  they  are  not  helpless  victims  ;  but 
that  if  they  only  know  how,  they  can  resist  disease  and 
ward  it  off,  just  as  positively  as  they  can  a  temptation 
to  sin.  Instead  of  blind  and  calm  submission  to  incip- 
ient or  advanced  stages  of  disease,  rise  in  rebellion 
against  them." 

"  The  depraved  appetite  for  alcoholic  drinks,  tobacco, 
tea,  coffee,  opium,  is  destroyed  only  by  the  mastery  of 
Mind  over  body."  "  Pufl&ng  the  obnoxious  fumes  of 
tobacco,  or  chewing  a  leaf  naturally  attractive  to  no 
animal  except  to  a  loathsome  worm,  is  self-evident 
error."  *'  Man's  enslavement  to  the  most  relentless 
masters — passion,  appetite,  or  malice — is  conquered 
only  by  a  mighty  struggle.  .  .  .  Here  Christian 
Science  is  the  sovereign  panacea,  giving  to  the  weak- 
ness of  mortal  mind,  strength  from  the  immortal  and 


Mrs.  Eddy  and  *'  Science  and  Health  "  197 


omnipotent  Mind,  lifting  humanity  above  itself,  into 
purer  desires,— even  into  moral  power  and  good  will 
to  man." 

''We  must  have  faith  in  all  the  sayings  of  our 
Master,  though  they  are  not  included  in  the  teachings 
of  the  schools,  and  not  understood  generally  by  our 
instructors  in  morality.  Jesus  said  (John  viii.  52), 
'  If  a  man  keep  my  sayings,  he  shall  never  taste  of 
death.'  "  "If  man  is  never  to  overcome  death,  why 
do  the  Scriptures  say,  '  The  last  enemy  that  shall  be 
destroyed  is  death '  ?  "  ''Sin  brought  death,  and  death 
will  disappear  with  sin.  Man  is  immortal,  and  the 
body  cannot  die,  because  it  has  no  life  of  its  own.  The 
illusions  named  death,  sickness,  and  sin  are  all  that 
can  be  destroyed." 

In  later  editions  of  Science  and  Health  the  chapter 
on  Healing  and  Practice  is  somewhat  enlarged,  and  has 
the  title  of  Christian  Science  Practice.  Among  the 
added  instructions  Mrs.  Eddy  gives  to  her  students  in 
it  we  have  the  following:  ''Until  the  advancing  age 
admits  the  efficacy  and  supremacy  of  Mind,  it  is  better 
to  leave  the  adjustment  of  broken  bones  and  disloca- 
tions to  the  fingers  of  a  surgeon,  while  you  confine 
yourself  chiefly  to  mental  reconstruction,  and  the  pre- 
vention of  inflammation  or  protracted  confinement. 
Christian  Science  is  always  the  most  skilful  surgeon, 
but  surgery  is  the  branch  of  its  healing  which  will  be 
last  demonstrated.  However,  it  is  but  just  to  say  that 
the  author  has  already  in  her  possession  well-authen- 
ticated records  of  the  cure,  by  herself  and  her  students, 
through  mental  surgery  alone,  of  dislocated  joints  and 
spinal  vertebrae." 

The  last  chapter  in  many  editions  of  Science  and 
Health  is  entitled  Glossar>s    in   which   is   given   the 


1 98  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

spiritual  meaning  that  words  used  in  the  Scriptures 
have  according  to  Mrs.  Eddy.  This  meaning  varies 
greatly  from  that  ordinarily  accepted.  One  of  her 
maxims  is  that  *  *  the  literal  or  material  reading  is  the 
reading  of  the  carnal  mind,  which  is  enmity  toward 
God."  Even  proper  nouns,  she  claims,  do  not  have 
in  the  Bible  their  usual  significance.  For  example, 
Euphrates  means,  ''  Divine  Science,  encompassing  the 
universe  and  man,"  *'  Metaphysics,  taking  the  place  of 
physics, "  "  a  state  of  sinless  mortal  thought. ' '  Eve  is 
defined  as  "mortality,"  "a  futile  belief  of  life,  sub- 
stance, and  intelligence  in  matter,"  ''self-imposed 
folly."  And  of  Adam  she  says  :  "Somewhat  in  this 
way  ought  Adam  to  be  thought  of:  as  a  dam,  an  ob- 
struction, as  error  opposed  to  truth, — as  standing  for 
that  which  is  accursed,  spoiled,  or  undone."  Every- 
thing in  the  Scriptures,  according  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  is 
misunderstood  until  it  has  a  spiritual,  or  what  she  calls 
a  "metaphysical"  interpretation,  and  this  she  claims 
is  found  alone  in  her  Key. 

The  lyord's  Prayer,  which  she  requires  to  be  used  in 
all  Christian  Science  churches,  she  spiritually  inter- 
prets as  follows  : 

"  Principle,  eternal  and  harmonious, 

Nameless  and  adorable  Intelligence, 

Thou  art  ever  present  and  supreme. 

And  when  this  supremacy  of  Spirit  shall  appear, 
the  dream  of  matter  will  disappear. 

Give  us  the  understanding  of  Truth  and  Love. 

And  loving  we  shall  learn  God,  and  Truth  will 
destroy  all  error. 

And  lead  us  unto  Eife  that  is  Soul,  and  deliver  us 
from  the  errors  of  sense,  sin,  sickness,  and  death. 

For  God  is  Life,  Truth,  and  Love  forever." 


Mrs,  Eddy  and  *'  Science  and  Health  "   199 


With  this  general  summary  of  the  contents  of  Science 
and  Health  before  us,  our  next  endeavor  will  be  to 
ascertain  what  there  was,  if  anything,  in  Mrs.  Eddy's 
early  history  that  wdll  enable  us  to  account  for  the 
origin  of  the  book.  And  the  moment  we  open  her 
autobiography,  to  which  she  has  given  the  title  Intro- 
spection and  Retrospection,  we  find  that  her  experiences 
have  always  been  in  her  opinion  of  the  most  unusual 
sort.  ' '  When  I  was  about  eight  years  old, ' '  she  writes, 
' '  I  repeatedly  heard  a  voice,  calling  me  distinctly  by 
name  three  times,  in  an  ascending  scale."  At  first  the 
voice  frightened  her,  but  as  soon  as  she  learned  to  an- 
swer the  call  by  replying,  ''Speak,  I^ord,  for  thy  servant 
heareth,"  every  fear  vanished,  and  all  became  peace 
and  joy. 

In  describing  her  early  education  she  tells  us  that 
"  at  ten  years  of  age  I  was  as  famihar  with  Lindley 
Murray's  Grammar  as  with  the  Westminster  Catechism; 
and  the  latter  I  had  to  repeat  every  Sunday.  My 
favorite  studies  were  Natural  Philosophy,  Logic,  and 
Moral  Science.  From  my  brother  Albert  I  received 
lessons  in  the  ancient  tongues,  Hebrew,  Greek,  and 
Latin."  In  accounting  for  the  slight  evidence  of  this 
knowledge  in .  her  works  she  says,  "After  my  dis- 
covery of  Christian  Science,  most  of  the  knowledge  I 
had  gleaned  from  schoolbooks  vanished  like  a  dream.'' 

Just  before  she  was  admitted  to  the  Congregational 
(Trinitarian)  Church  at  the  age  of  twelve,  as  she  tells 
us  in  a  chapter  entitled  Theological  Reminiscences, 
"  the  doctrine  of  Unconditional  Election  or  Predesti- 
nation greatly  troubled  me.  .  .  .So  perturbed  was  I 
by  the  thoughts  aroused  by  this  erroneous  doctrine 
that  the  family  doctor  was  summoned  and  pronounced 
me  stricken  with  fever. ' ' 


2  00  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

While  in  this  condition,  her  father,  she  says,  tried 
his  best  to  convert  her  to  his  man-made  creed,  but  to 
no  purpose.  On  the  contrary,  "  My  mother,"  she  con- 
tinues, ' '  as  she  bathed  my  burning  temples,  bade  me 
lean  on  God's  love,  which  would  give  me  rest,  if  I 
went  to  Him  in  prayer,  as  I  was  wont  to  do,  seeking 
His  guidance.  I  prayed  ;  and  a  soft  glow  of  ineffable 
joy  came  over  me.  The  fever  was  gone,  and  I  rose 
and  dressed  myself,  in  a  normal  condition  of  health. 
Mother  saw  this  and  was  glad.  The  physician  mar- 
velled ;  and  the  '  horrible  decree '  of  Predestination — 
as  John  Calvin  rightly  called  his  own  tenet — forever 
lost  its  power  oyer  me." 

Out  of  this  experience  and  others  of  a  similar  char- 
acter grew  Mrs.  Kddy's  favorite  doctrine  of  the  supe- 
riority of  the  feminine  element  in  matters  of  religion. 
Woman  she  describes  as  **  a  higher  term  for  man." 
She  alone  "gives  the  full  spiritual  compound  idea  of 
Him  who  is  Life,  Truth,  and  Love."  "  She  is  the  first 
to  abandon  the  belief  in  the  material  origin  of  man  and 
to  discern  spiritual  creation."  It  is  this  quality  of 
superior  spiritual  insight  that  "enables  woman  to  be 
first  to  interpret  the  Scriptures  in  their  true  sense." 
Just  as  ' '  Jesus  was  the  offspring  of  Mary's  self-conscious 
communion  with  God, ' '  so  when  Divine  Science  comes 
into  the  world,  "  woman  must  give  it  birth.  It  must 
be  begotten  of  spirituality,  since  none  but  the  pure  in 
heart  can  see  God." 

Mrs.  Eddy's  doctrine  on  this  subject  reaches  its 
climax  in  the  clear  intimation,  if  not  the  direct  asser- 
tion, that  she  is  herself  the  woman  referred  to  in  the 
twelfth  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Revelation,  which  opens 
as  follows:  "And  there  appeared  a  great  wonder  in 
heaven  ;  a  woman  clothed  with  the  sun,  and  the  moon 


Mrs,  Eddy  and  "  Science  and  Health  "  201 

under  her  feet,  and  upon  her  head  a  crown  of  twelve 
stars." 

"  When  quite  a  child,"  she  writes,  *'  we  adopted  the 
Graham  system  for  dyspepsia,  ate  only  bread  and  vege- 
tables, and  drank  water.  Following  this  diet  for  years, 
we  became  more  dyspeptic,  however,  and,  of  course, 
thought  we  must  diet  more  rigidly ;  so  we  partook  of 
but  one  meal  in  twenty-four  hours,  and  this  consisted 
of  a  thin  slice  of  bread,  about  three  inches  square, 
without  water;  our  physician  not  allowing  us,  with 
this  ample  meal,  to  wet  our  parched  lips  for  many 
hours  thereafter  ;  whenever  we  drank  it  produced  vio- 
lent retchings.  Thus  we  passed  most  of  our  early  years, 
as  many  can  attest,  in  hunger,  pain,  weakness,  and 
starvation." 

Here  we  find  most  unmistakably  one  of  the  chief 
sources  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  ultra  opinions  so  often  reiterated 
about  the  futility  of  any  attempt  to  regain  health  by 
following  the  laws  of  hygiene,  or  any  prescription 
based  upon  material  science. 

From  this  and  similar  experiences  she  says  herself 
that  she  learned  to  bid  defiance  to  the  "medicine- 
men." '*  Metaphysical  Science  came  in  and  saved 
me."  "  Truth,  opening  my  eyes,  relieved  my  stomach, 
and  I  ate  without  suffering,  giving  God  thanks. "  * '  I 
learned  also  that  food  gives  no  strength  or  weakness 
to  the  body,  that  mind  alone  does  that. ' ' 

Mrs.  Kddy's  birthplace  was  in  the  town  of  Bow, 
N.  H. ,  in  sight  of  her  present  home  at  Pleasant  View 
in  Concord,  the  capital  of  the  State.  While  she  was 
still  a  young  girl,  her  parents  moved  to  Tilton,  a  village 
eighteen  miles  north  of  Concord,  adjoining  the  town  of 
Canterbury,  where  there  was  a  flourishing  settlement 
of  Shakers.     From   them   she   undoubtedly   received 


202  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

many  ideas  and  suggestions  that  greatly  influenced 
her  tendencies  of  thought.  The  doctrine  of  "divine 
illumination,"  for  which  the  Shakers  were  famous,  she 
must  have  become  familiar  with,  as  it  was  one  of  the 
current  topics  of  conversation  in  all  that  region.  Her 
brother  Albert  worked  in  the  law  office  of  Franklin 
Pierce  (afterward  President  of  the  United  States),  who 
was  counsel  for  the  Shakers,  and  had  charge  of  an 
important  trial  of  some  of  their  number  in  Concord 
in  1848. 

Being  impelled,  as  she  says  herself,  ' '  from  my  very 
childhood  by  a  hunger  and  thirst  after  divine  things,— 
a  desire  for  something  higher  and  better  than  matter 
and  apart  from  it,"  she  must  certainly  have  read  with 
avidity  the  current  literature  of  this  ''  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  and  Mother  Ann,"  which  she  could  so  easily 
obtain  from  any  of  her  neighbors.  In  it  we  find  the 
same  outbursts  against  putting  confidence  in  matter 
that  we  find  in  Science  and  Health.  Both  the  Shakers 
and  Mrs.  Eddy  reject  and  almost  abhor  the  literal 
interpretation  of  the  Bible,  and  constantly  insist  that 
the  symbolic  interpretation  is  the  only  true  one.  Both 
affirm  that  the  last  dispensation  will  be  one  of  healing 
by  spiritual  means  alone.  Both  teach  that  the  Second 
Coming  of  Christ  must  of  necessity  be  in  the  form  of  a 
woman.  In  fact,  if  we  should  take  the  declaration  of 
the  Shakers,  as  expressed  in  their  Manual,  that 
* '  Shakerism  is  the  only  religious  system  that  teaches 
Science  by  Divine  Revelation,"  we  should  only  need 
to  change  the  first  word  of  the  sentence  to  have  a 
satisfactory  statement  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  claim. 

Mother  Ann's  personal  experiences  must  have  made 
a  deep  impression  upon  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  their  lives 
have  much  in  common.     Mrs.  Ann  I^ee  Stanley,  who 


Mrs,  Eddy  and  '*  Science  and  Health  "   203 

had  succeeded  to  the  leadership  of  the  Shaking  Quakers 
in  England,  came  to  this  country  with  a  few  of  her  fol- 
lowers in  1774,  and  settled  in  Watervliet,  New  York,  a 
few  miles  from  Albany.  She  was  acknowledged  as  a 
''Mother  in  Christ"  by  her  devotees,  and  early  as- 
sumed the  title  of  "  Ann,  the  Word."  She  believed 
that  she  was  constantly  inspired  from  on  high,  and 
that  she  had  the  power  to  work  miracles.  A  civil 
charge  was  brought  against  her  for  high  treason  and 
witchcraft,  and  for  some  years  she  was  imprisoned  at 
Albany  and  Poughkeepsie.  The  result  of  this  alleged 
persecution  was  that  her  followers  rapidly  multiplied. 
Settlements  were  formed  in  New  Hampshire,  Connect- 
icut, Ohio,  and  other  States  to  carry  out  her  doctrines. 
After  her  death  it  was  asserted  by  many  of  her  followers 
that  messages  were  received  from  her  both  orally  and 
in  writing.  Both  Ann  Lee  and  Mrs.  Eddy  early  in 
life  had  their  heavenly  visions.  Their  extraordinary 
ascetic  practices  were  very  similar,  and  their  views 
about  marriage  and  the  motherhood  of  God  were  strik- 
ingly ahke.  They  both  taught  their  followers  to  apply 
to  them  *'the  endearing  term  of  mother,"  and  they 
both  claimed  the  possession  of  superhuman  powers. 
For  these  and  other  reasons,  the  evidence  is  most 
decisive  that  the  influence  of  the  one  upon  the  other 
was  direct  and  intimate. 

In  1843  Mrs.  Eddy  married  her  first  husband,  a  Mr. 
Glover,  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  but  he  died  the 
following  year,  and  she  returned  to  the  paternal  roof  in 
Tilton  to  take  up  afresh  her  search  for  health.  ''I 
wandered,"  she  says,  "through  the  dim  mazes 
of  Materia  Medica,  till  I  was  weary  of  'scientific 
guessing,'  as  it  has  been  called.  I  sought  knowledge 
from  the  different  schools— Allopathy,  HomcEopathy, 


204  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

Hydropathy,  Electricity,  and  from  various  humbugs — 
but  without  receiving  satisfaction.  .  .  .  Neither 
ancient  nor  modern  philosophy  could  clear  the  clouds, 
or  give  one  distinct  statement  of  the  spiritual  Science 
of  Mind-healing.     Human  reason  was  not  equal  to  it.'* 

Another  experience  that  furnished  Mrs.  Eddy  with 
much  material  for  Science  and  Health  was  her  sojourn 
in  the  sanitarium  of  P.  P.  Quimby,  a  noted  mental 
healer  of  Portland,  Maine.  For  many  years  after  her 
second  marriage  to  Dr.  Patterson,  she  remained  an  in- 
valid, and  no  relief  came  to  her  aid  until  in  1862  she 
was  taken  for  treatment  to  Portland.  For  seven  years 
previous  to  her  going  to  Quimby,  she  says  in  a  letter 
quoted  by  Dr.  Riley  in  his  valuable  article  on  "The 
Personal  Sources  of  Christian  Science ' '  {Psychol.  Rev. , 
Nov.,  1903),  "  I  was  confined  to  my  bed  with  a  severe 
illness  and  seldom  left  my  bed  or  room."  So  much 
did  he  help  her  that  "in  less  than  one  week,"  accord- 
ing  to  her  own  statement,  she  "  ascended  by  a  stairway 
of  one  hundred  and  eighty-two  steps  to  the  dome  of  the 
City  Hall,"  and  was  almost  entirely  well. 

Quimby' s  method  of  treatment  is  thus  described  in 
one  of  his  circulars  of  1859  :  "  I  make  no  outward  ap- 
plication, but  simply  sit  by  the  patient,  tell  him  what 
he  thinks  is  his  disease,  and  my  explanation  is  the 
cure.  If  I  succeed  in  correcting  his  errors,  I  change 
the  fluids  of  his  system  and  establish  the  truth  or 
health.     The  truth  is  the  cure." 

Mr.  Quimby  died  the  year  before  Mrs.  Eddy  made 
what  she  calls  her  "  Great  Discovery,"  that  all  is  mind 
and  mind  is  all.  Of  the  parallelisms  between  Mrs. 
Eddy's  views  as  found  in  Science  and  Health  and 
Quimby' s,  Dr.  Riley  in  the  article  quoted  above  writes 
as  follows  :  "  At  first  sight  Eddyism  might  seem  noth- 


Mrs.  Eddy  and  ''  Science  and  Health  "  205 


ing  but  Quimbyism.  He  taught  a  'Science  of 
Health '  ;  she  wrote  '  Science  and  Health ' ;  both  em- 
ployed the  term  Christian  Science.  Again,  Mrs.  Eddy 
has  her  reversed  statements,  propositions  which  are 
offered  as  self-evident  because  they  read  backward. 
She  propounds  this  concatenation  :  '  There  is  no  pain 
in  Truth,  and  no  Truth  in  pain  ;  no  matter  in  mind, 
and  no  mind  in  matter ;  no  nerve  in  Intelligence,  and 
no  Intelligence  in  nerve ;  no  matter  in  Spirit,  and  no 
Spirit  in  matter.'  Similar  patent  reversibles  are  to  be 
found  in  Quimby's  '  Science  of  Man  '  :  '  Error  is  sick- 
ness, Truth  is  health  ;  Error  is  matter.  Truth  is  God ; 
God  is  right,  error  is  wrong.'  " 

It  is  beyond  reasonable  doubt  that  both  Mr.  Quimby 
and  Mrs.  Eddy  got  many  of  their  ideas  from  the  books 
in  common  circulation  in  their  day  dealing  with  the 
subjects  in  which  they  had  a  deep  personal  interest. 
And  it  is  nothing  to  their  discredit  that  such  was  the 
case.  Durant's  New  Theory  of  Animal  Magnetism, 
with  a  Key  to  the  Mysteries,  was  a  book  that  then 
had  many  readers.  Dr.  Dod's  book  on  the  Philo- 
sophy of  Electrical  Psychology  must  have  been  fre- 
quently at  hand,  to  say  nothing  of  Grimes's  Mys- 
teries of  Human  Nature,  of  which  almost  everybody 
in  that  day  had  something  to  say  pro  or  con. 

Furthermore,  Mrs.  Eddy  repeatedly  refers  to  her 
experiences  with  Homoeopathy  as  greatly  influencing 
her  views.  "I  found,"  she  says,  in  her  chapter  on 
Introspection  and  Retrospection,  "  in  the  two  hundred 
and  sixty-two  remedies  enumerated  by  Jahr,  one  per- 
vading secret,— namely,  that  the  less  material  medicine 
we  have,  and  the  more  mind,  the  better  the  work 
is  done  ;  a  fact  which  seems  to  prove  the  principle  of 
Mind-healing.     One  drop  of  the  thirtieth  attenuation 


2o6  The  sphere  of  Religion 

of  Natrum  Muriaticum,  in  a  tumblerful  of  water,  and 
one  teaspoonful  of  the  water  mixed  with  the  faith  of 
ages,  would  cure  patients  not  affected  by  a  larger 
dose." 

With  these  numerous  sources  to  draw  from,  we  can- 
not admit  Mrs.  Eddy's  assertion  that  what  she  calls 
"The  Precious  Volume"  is  ''hopelessly  original," 
and  that  all  other  systems  of  mental  healing  are  pla- 
giarisms from  it.  Much  less  can  we  assent  to  her  pre- 
posterous claim  when  she  says :  * '  I  should  blush  to 
write  of  Science  and  Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scrip- 
tures, as  I  have  done,  were  it  of  human  origin,  and  I, 
apart  from  God,  its  author  ;  but  as  I  was  only  a  scribe, 
echoing  the  harmonies  of  Heaven  in  divine  meta- 
physics, I  cannot  be  supermodest  of  the  Christian 
Science  text-book. ' ' 

The  work  before  us  plainly  grew  up  out  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  peculiar  experiences  and  environment.  It  is 
the  product  of  the  application  of  her  own  natural 
powers  to  the  data  thus  acquired,  and  its  value  ought 
to  be  determined  by  just  the  same  tests  as  we  apply  to 
all  similar  products,  namely,  by  the  success  with  which 
it  accounts  for  all  the  actual  facts. 

Now  nothing  is  better  established  by  observation  and 
experiment  than  that  the  mind  under  certain  condi- 
tions can  to  a  remarkable  degree  affect  the  activities  of 
the  body.  Great  mental  excitement  has  often  made 
people  insensible  to  what  would  otherwise  have 
been  excruciating  pain.  Paralytics  in  numerous  in- 
stances have  risen  from  their  beds  and  fled  unaided 
from  burning  buildings.  Many  persons  have  brought 
on  sickness  and  death  by  the  morbid  dread  of  certain 
diseases.  Others  have  maintained  themselves  in  health 
and  strength  against  extraordinary  odds  by  a  cheerful 


Mrs.  Eddy  and  "  Science  and  Health  "  207 

and  hopeful  spirit.  These  facts  have  been  noted  almost 
from  the  dawn  of  history,  and  are  made  use  of  to-day 
by  the  Hottentots  of  South  Africa  as  well  as  by  the 
most  refined  and  cultivated  people  of  the  globe. 

As  Professor  Angell  has  expressed  it  in  his  excellent 
discussion  of  "  Christian  Science  from  a  Psychologist's 
Point  of  View"  (77?<?  World  To-day,  April,  1905), 
"Mesmerists,  hypnotists,  Christian  Scientists,  faith 
curists,  mental  healers,  medicine-men,  priests,  saints, 
and  physicians,  one  and  all  succeed,  by  playing  upon 
the  imagination,  in  producing  remarkable  changes  in 
bodily  health."  Suggestive  therapeutics  has  undoubt- 
edly healed  a  long  list  of  diseases,  all  the  way  from  in- 
somnia and  neuralgia  up  to  alcoholism  and  asthma  in 
some  of  its  worst  forms.  It  has  also  greatly  mitigated 
the  distressing  symptoms  of  other  troubles  in  which  the 
nervous  system  plays  an  important  part.  But  there  is 
little  or  no  proof  that  the  diseases  caused  by  bacilli, 
such  as  typhoid  fever,  smallpox,  and  bubonic  plague, 
or  cases  of  fracture,  can  be  helped  in  this  manner. 

Mrs.  Eddy  is  right  in  appealing  to  religion  in  the 
care  of  the  body  as  well  as  of  the  soul.  For  * '  religious 
enthusiasm  has  always  been  one  of  the  most  effective 
spurs  to  human  action,"  and  only  the  greatest  good 
can  come  from  urging  the  patient  to  commit  himself 
unreservedly  to  the  kindly  purposes  of  God.  But  there 
is  not  a  particle  of  reason  in  this  position  for  holding 
either  that  there  is  no  body,  or  that  disease  has  no 
existence  at  all. 

The  fact  that  we  may  sometimes  be  in  a  condition  in 
which  we  are  not  thinking  of  our  bodies,  does  not  prove 
that  we  never  had  any.  Because  we  ma}^  sometimes 
be  ignorant  of  the  existence  of  a  disease,  that  should 
not  argue  that  we  have  established  the  non-existence 


2o8  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

of  all  disease.  Nor  have  we  any  ground  for  holding 
that  sin,  sickness,  and  death  have  the  same  relation  to 
reality  that  darkness  has  to  light,  as  Mrs.  Eddy  con- 
stantly asserts.  Darkness  is  merely  the  absence  of 
light,  but  sin  is  not  merely  the  absence  of  goodness. 
Sin  is  the  product  of  a  bad  intention,  and  a  bad  inten- 
tion is  just  as  real  as  a  good  intention.  Sickness  is  not 
merely  the  absence  of  the  idea  of  health.  It  is  a  dis- 
ordered condition  of  the  body  and  is  just  as  real  as  a 
well-ordered  condition,  which  is  health. 

Moreover,  our  knowledge  of  our  individual  existence 
is  to  us  the  most  fundamental  fact  in  the  universe.  We 
cannot  consider  ourselves  as  the  mere  idea  of  some  other 
being,  even  of  God.  Nor  can  we  regard  God  as  all-in- 
all  in  the  sense  in  which  Mrs.  Eddy  regards  him, — as 
the  sum-total  of  the  universe, — although  we  can  talk 
about  such  a  being  just  as  we  can  talk  about  round 
squares  and  quadrilateral  triangles. 

The  position  taken  in  Science  and  Health  ignores  the 
teachings  of  history.  Mrs.  Eddy  has  recently  said  in  a 
letter  to  the  New  York.  American^  dated  Nov.  22,  1906: 
* '  I  do  not  find  my  authority  for  Christian  Science  in 
history,  but  in  revelation.  If  there  had  never  been  such 
a  person  as  the  GaHlean  Prophet,  it  would  make  no 
difference  to  me. ' ' 

It  is  equally  at  variance  with  Mrs.  Eddy's  position  to 
look  through  nature  up  to  God.  As  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  matter,  the  heavens  for  her  do  not  declare  the 
glory  of  God,  nor  does  the  firmament  show  forth  his 
handiwork.  There  is  nothing  to  be  learned  by  con- 
sidering the  lilies  of  the  field  or  the  fowls  of  the  air. 
Just  as  we  must  reject  Mrs.  Eddy's  psychology  as  an 
unjustifiable  exaggeration  and  perversion  of  a  great 
truth,  so  we  must  refuse  to  accept  her  one-sided  con- 


Mrs.  Eddy  and  "  Science  and  Health  "  209 

ception  of  the  universe  in  whicli  we  live  and  its  relation 
to  our  Maker. 

Most  emphatically  ought  we  to  protest  against  the 
claim  she  makes  in  her  Miscellaneous  Writings  (p.  364) 
for  Christian  Science  that  "it  is  the  soul  of  divine 
philosophy  and  there  is  no  other  philosophy.  It  is  not 
a  search  after  wisdom,  it  is  wisdom :  it  is  God's  right 
hand  grasping  the  universe." 

There  is  much  ground  for  the  statement  of  an  able 
and  careful  critic  of  Christian  Science  that  the  proper 
point  of  view  from  which  to  judge  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  con- 
tribution to  the  cause  of  religion  is  to  be  found  in  the 
analysis  of  her  own  statement:  ' '  I  am  a  Christian  Scien- 
tist, the  Founder  of  this  System  of  Religion, — widely 
known,  one  readily  sees  that  this  science  has  distanced 
all  other  religions  and  pathological  systems  for  physical 
and  moral  reformation. ' ' 

In  spite  of  all  this  egotism  and  misrepresentation  of 
the  truth,  it  must  be  admitted  that  Christian  Science 
has  an  important  message  for  this  present  materialistic 
age ;  for  it  emphasizes  the  fact  that  the  mental  and 
spiritual  things  in  this  universe  are  vastly  more  impor- 
tant than  the  material,  and  that  the  most  fundamental 
truths  with  which  we  have  to  do  are  not  obtained  through 
the  senses,  but  are  immediately  discerned.  It  makes 
vivid  the  fact  that  man  is  not  a  mere  machine,  or  a  slave 
of  the  body,  but  a  living  spirit ;  and  it  brings  promi- 
nently to  view  the  much  neglected  truth  that  the  mission 
of  religion  is  to  purify  and  ennoble  the  body  as  well  as 
the  soul. 

Christian  Science  is  not  by  any  means  to  be  regarded 
as  a  delusion  and  a  snare.  The  way  to  make  it  useful 
to  the  religious  progress  of  mankind,  as  a  writer  in  the 
Outlook  (June  23,   1906)  has  well  said,  is  "to  teach 


2 1  o  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

with  greater  clearness  and  power  the  three  truths  of 
which  its  votaries  regard  themselves  as  peculiar  proph- 
ets, namely,  the  spiritual  nature  of  man,  the  imme- 
diacy of  the  soul's  knowledge  of  the  spiritual  world, 
and  the  curative  power  of  Christianity  ;  and  to  teach 
these  truths  freed  from  the  accompanying  errors  of 
Christian  Science  that  the  body  is  but  a  shadow, 
spiritual  visions  are  infallible  guides,  and  the  cure  of 
evil,  whether  moral  or  physical,  is  thinking  that  it 
does  not  exist. ' ' 

m.  Madame  Blavatsky's  "  Isis  Unveiled." — It 
is  a  striking  fact  that  during  the  same  period  of  time 
in  which  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  G.  Bddy  was  strenuously 
laboring  to  place  the  Christian  Science  religion  upon 
a  firm  foundation  in  and  around  Boston,  a  Russian 
noblewoman,  by  the  name  of  Madame  Helena  P. 
Blavatsky,  was  working  with  even  greater  zeal  and 
energy  to  establish  Theosophy,  or  the  "  Wisdom 
religion,"  in  New  York. 

Mrs.  Bddy  had  been  brought  up  very  simply  in  the 
country,  and  had  spent  her  life  almost  wholly  in  a 
small  portion  of  New  England.  Madame  Blavatsky 
was  a  typical  cosmopolitan,  having  from  her  girlhood 
been  a  great  traveller,  and  having  acquainted  herself, 
by  actual  contact,  with  the  people  and  customs  of  a 
large  portion  of  the  globe. 

Both  of  these  women  claimed  to  be  directed  by 
superhuman  powers  and  to  speak  with  an  authority 
not  born  of  the  earth.  The  text-book  prepared  by 
Mrs.  Kddy  for  her  followers  was  entitled  Science  and 
Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures.  Madame  Blavat- 
sky called  her  work  Isis  Unveiled;  a  Master-key  to 
the  Mysteries  of  Ancient  and  Modern  Science  and 
Theology.      The  former  bible  was  published  in  1875; 


Madame  Blavatskys  ''  his  Unveiled''  211 


the  latter  in  1876.  Very  few  copies  of  Science  and 
Health  were  sold  for  months  after  its  issue.  The  en- 
tire first  edition  of  his  Unveiled  was  taken  up  within 
fourteen  days. 

The  circumstances  that  led  Madame  Blavatsky  to 
the  writing  of  his  Unveiled  are  substantially  as  fol- 
lows :  Alone  and  with  very  little  money  she  landed  in 
New  York  on  the  7th  of  July,  1873,  having  crossed  the 
Atlantic  on  a  French  steamship  saiHng  from  Havre. 
For  several  weeks  after  her  arrival  she  had  lodgings  in 
a  cheap  east-side  tenement-house,  and  supported  her- 
self by  sewing  cravats  for  a  Hebrew  shopkeeper  near 
her  quarters. 

As  soon  as  her  family  found  out  her  whereabouts 
through  the  Russian  consul  in  New  York,  they  sent 
her  ample  means  to  establish  herself  in  comfort  at 
16  Irving  Place,  near  Union  Square,  where  she  was 
soon  surrounded  by  a  large  circle  of  admirers.  To 
them  she  entrusted  the  fact  that  she  had  left  Paris 
on  a  day's  notice  by  order  of  certain  Tibetan  **Ma- 
hatmas"  or  ''Masters,"  residing  in  the  fastnesses  of 
the  Himalayas,  who  had  directed  her  to  go  at  once 
to  New  York  and  await  further  orders. 

During  the  first  year  of  her  residence  in  America  she 
devoted  her  energies  to  the  ardent  defence  of  Spiritual- 
ism from  the  many  fierce  attacks  to  which  it  was  at 
that  time  subjected,  owing  to  the  remarkable  mani- 
festations being  given  through  the  Fox  sisters  in  and 
around  Rochester,  N.  Y.  In  a  letter  to  The  Spiritualist 
in  1874  she  wrote  :  *'  For  over  fifteen  years  have  I 
fought  my  battle  for  the  blessed  truth  ;  have  travelled 
and  preached  it— though  I  never  was  bom  for  a  lec- 
turer—from the  snow-covered  tops  of  the  Caucasian 
Mountains  as  well  as  from  the  sandy  valleys  of  the 


2 1 2  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

Nile.  I  have  proved  the  truth  of  it  practically  and  by 
persuasion.  For  the  sake  of  Spiritualism  I  have  left 
m}^  home,  an  easy  life  amongst  a  civilized  society,  and 
have  become  a  wanderer  upon  the  face  of  the  earth. 
.  .  .  Knowing  this  country  to  be  the  cradle  of  Modern 
Spiritualism,  I  came  over  here  from  France  with  feel- 
ings not  unlike  those  of  a  Mohammedan  approaching 
the  birthplace  of  his  Prophet." 

Madame  Blavatsky  did  not,  however,  adopt  the 
spiritualistic  explanation  of  the  phenomena  produced. 
In  a  note  found  in  one  of  her  scrap-books  written  about 
this  time,  referring  to  her  connection  with  the  Spirit- 
ualists, she  says  :  "  I  was  sent  from  Paris  to  America 
on  purpose  to  prove  the  phenomena  and  their  reality, 
and  to  show  the  fallacy  of  the  spiritualistic  theory  of 
spirits.  But  how  could  I  do  it  best?  I  did  not  want 
the  people  at  large  to  know  that  I  could  produce  the 
same  things  at  will.  I  had  received  orders  to  the  con- 
trary." In  another  note,  written  shortly  after  the  one 
just  quoted,  we  read  :  "  Ordered  to  begin  telling  the 
public  the  truth  about  the  phenomena  and  their  me- 
diums, and  now  my  martyrdom  will  begin.  I  shall 
have  all  the  Spiritualists  against  me  in  addition  to  the 
Christians  and  the  Sceptics.  Thy  will,  oh  M.,  be 
done.     H.  P.  B." 

By  a  strange  coincidence,  only  a  few  months  after 
Madame  Blavatsky 's  appearance  in  America  some  very 
remarkable  spiritualistic  phenomena  began  to  manifest 
themselves  at  the  farmhouse  of  the  Eddy  family,  in 
the  town  of  Chittenden,  Vermont.  Visitors  alleged 
that  through  the  help  of  William  Eddy,  one  of  the  two 
illiterate,  hard-working  brothers  who  owned  the  place, 
they  could  see,  and  even  touch  and  converse  with,  de- 
ceased  relatives,   and  that  other  experiences  of   an 


Madame  Blavatskys  ''  his  Uuveiled'^      213 

equally  extraordinary  character  frequently  occurred  in 
his  presence.  People  soon  began  to  flock  to  the  town 
from  all  parts  of  the  country. 

Among  others  to  come  to  the  place  was  Colonel  Henry 
S.  Olcott,  an  eminent  lawyer  of  New  York,  who  after  a 
careful  examination  pronounced  the  phenomena  gen- 
uine and  wrote  extensive  descriptions  of  them  for  the 
New  York  Daily  Graphic.  On  reading  these  reports  of 
the  so-called  "Eddy  ghosts"  at  Chittenden,  Madame 
Blavatsky  at  once  hastened  thither,  and  there  met 
the  author  of  the  articles  in  the  Daily  Graphic,  with 
whom  she  maintained  from  that  time  forth  the  closest 
relations. 

Colonel  Olcott  opens  his  recent  book,  Old  Diary 
Leaves  ;  a  True  History  of  the  Theosophical  Society,  with 
this  description  of  their  first  meeting  :  ' '  Since  I  am  to 
tell  of  the  birth  and  progress  of  the  Theosophical  So- 
ciety, I  must  begin  at  the  beginning,  and  tell  how  its 
two  founders  first  met.  It  was  a  very  prosaic  incident ; 
I  said  '  Permettez-inoi,  Madame'  and  gave  her  a 
light  for  her  cigarette  ;  our  acquaintance  began  in 
smoke,  but  it  stirred  up  a  great   and  permanent  fire  " 

(p.  I). 

Immediately  after  the  arrival  of  Madame  Blavatsky, 
or  H.  P.  B.,  as  she  preferred  to  be  called,  the  phe- 
nomena at  the  Eddy  homestead  underwent  a  marked 
change  in  their  character.  From  the  small  closet  in 
which  William  Eddy  secreted  himself  at  the  beginning 
of  the  seances  there  issued  not  only  the  phantoms  of 
dead  men  and  women  once  known  in  that  locality,  but 
those  of  other  nationalities,  such  as  a  Russian  peasant 
girl,  a  mussulman  from  Tiflis,  a  Kourdish  cavalier 
with  scimitar,  pistols,  and  lance,  a  hideous  negro  sor- 
cerer from  Africa,  and  the  Hke.     '*  There  was  given," 


214  T^^^^  sphere  of  Religion 

says  Colonel  Olcott,  "  to  every  eye-witness  a  convincing 
proof  that  the  apparitions  were  genuine  "  (p.  8). 

After  some  days  at  Chittenden,  Madame  Blavatsky 
returned  to  New  York.  Colonel  Olcott  soon  joined  her 
and  became  one  of  her  most  devoted  pupils  in  the  study 
of  eastern  occult  religion.  Together  with  a  number 
of  mutual  friends,  they  formed  in  1875  the  Theosophi- 
cal  Society,  of  which  Colonel  Olcott  was  chosen  presi- 
dent, an  office  which  he  held  to  the  day  of  his  death  in 
1907.  The  object  of  the  society  was  to  acquaint  its 
members  with  the  original  occult  sources  of  religion 
and  establish  a  universal  brotherhood  of  man.  It  took 
for  its  motto  that  of  the  Maharajah  of  Benares,  "There 
is  no  Religion  higher  than  Truth. ' '  Madame  Blavatsky 
beyond  all  question  was  the  originator  of  the  new 
movement  and  its  undisputed  leader  and  head.  Ac- 
cording to  Colonel  Olcott,  she  offered  almost  daily 
many  infallible  proofs  that  she  was  endowed  wnth 
superhuman  powers. 

The  following  are  samples  of  those  he  has  recorded 
as  occurring  at  this  early  period  of  her  career  in  Amer- 
ica :  ''Among  her  callers  was  an  Italian  artist,  a 
Signor  B.,  formerly  a  carbonaro.  I  was  sitting  alone 
with  her  in  her  drawing-room  when  he  made  his  first 
visit.  They  talked  of  Italian  affairs,  and  he  suddenly 
pronounced  the  name  of  one  of  the  greatest  of  the 
Adepts.  She  started  as  if  she  had  received  an  electric 
shock  ;  looked  him  straight  in  the  eyes  and  said  (in 
Italian),  *  What  is  it  ?  I  am  ready.'  He  passed  it  off 
carelessly,  but  thenceforth  the  talk  was  all  about 
Magic,  Magicians,  Adepts.  Signor  B.  went  and  opened 
one  of  the  French  windows,  made  some  beckoning 
passes  toward  the  outer  air,  and  presently  a  pure  white 
butterfly  came  into  the  room,  and  went  flying  about 


Madame  Blavat sky s  ''his  Unveiled''       215 

near  the  ceiling.  H.  P.  B.  laughed  in  a  cheerful  way 
and  said  :  '  That  is  pretty,  but  I  can  also  do  it  ! '  She, 
too,  opened  the  window,  made  similar  beckoning 
passes,  and  presently  a  second  white  butterfly  came 
fluttering  in.  It  mounted  to  the  ceiling,  chased  the 
other  around  the  room,  played  with  it  now  and  then, 
with  it  flew  to  a  corner,  and,  presto  !  both  disappeared 
at  once  while  we  are  looking  at  them.  '  What  does 
that  mean  ?  '  I  asked.  '  Only  this,  that  Signor  B.  can 
make  an  elemental  turn  itself  into  a  butterfly  and  so 
can  L'  " 

"One  cold  winter's  night,  when  several  inches  of 
snow  lay  upon  the  ground,  she  and  I  were  working  upon 
her  book  until  a  late  hour  at  her  rooms  in  Thirty-fourth 
Street.     I  had  eaten  some  saltish  food  for  dinner,  and 
about  I  A.M.,  feeling  very  thirsty,  said  to  her,  *  Would 
it  not  be  nice  to  have  some  hot-house  grapes  ?'     So  it 
would, '  she  replied, '  let  us  have  some. '     '  But  the  shops 
have  been  closed  for  hours  and  we  can  buy  none,'   I 
said.     *  No  matter,  we  shall  have  them  all  the  same,' 
was  her  reply.     '  But  how  ?'     '  I  will  show  you,  if  you 
will  just  turn  down  that  gaslight  on  the  table  in  front 
of  us. '    I  turned  the  cock  unintentionally  so  far  around 
as  to  extinguish  the  light.     '  You  need  not  have  done 
that,'  she  said,  '  I  only  wanted  you  to  make  the  light 
dim.  However,  light  it  again  quickly.'  A  box  of  matches 
lay  just  at  hand,  and  in  a  moment  I  had  relit  the  lamp. 
'  See  !'  she  exclaimed,  pointing  to  a  hanging  book-shelf 
on  the  wall  before  us.     To  my  amazement  there  hung 
from  the  knobs  at  the  two  ends  of  one  of  the  shelves 
two  large  bunches  of  ripe  Hamburg  grapes,  which  we 
proceeded  to  eat.     To  my  question  as  to  the  agency 
employed,  she  said  it  was  done  by  certain  elementals 
under  her  control  "  (pp.  15-17). 


2 1 6  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

According  to  the  account  we  have  of  the  matter, 
Madame  Blavatsky  began  writing,  quite  unconscious  of 
the  real  nature  of  her  task. 

"Oneday  in  the  summer  of  1875,  H.P.  B.  showed  me,'* 
says  Colonel  Olcott,  "  some  sheets  of  manuscript  which 
she  had  written  and  said  :  '  I  wrote  this  last  night  "by 
order,"  but  what  the  deuce  it  is  to  be  I  don't  know. 
Perhaps  it  is  for  a  newspaper  article,  perhaps  for  a  book, 
perhaps  for  nothing  ;  anyhow,  I  did  as  I  was  ordered'  " 
(p.  202).  After  he  had  looked  at  it  she  threw  the  MS. 
into  her  desk,  and  nothing  more  was  said  about  the 
matter  until  her  return  from  a  visit  to  her  friends.  Prof, 
and  Mrs.  Corson  of  Cornell  University,  a  few  months 
later.  Encouraged  by  them,  she  took  up  the  task  of 
writing  out  what  her  Masters  made  known  to  her,  and 
she  kept  at  it  with  prodigious  and  unrelenting  energy 
until  the  fall  of  1876,  when  his  Unveiled,  consisting  of 
two  large  volumes  of  over  600  pages  each,  was  placed 
in  the  hands  of  the  printer. 

In  a  letter  to  one  of  her  family  in  Russia  quoted  by 
A.  P.  ^\nx\^\.\.{Incide7its  in  the  Life  of  Madame  Blavatsky, 
pp.  205-206)  she  says:  "  When  I  wrote  *  Isis,'  I  wrote 
it  so  easily  that  it  certainly  was  no  labor,  but  a  real  plea- 
sure. Why  should  I  be  praised  for  it  ?  Whenever  I  am 
told  to  write,  I  sit  down  and  obey,  and  then  I  can  write 
easily  upon  almost  anything, — metaphysics,  psychol- 
ogy, philosophy,  ancient  religions,  zoology,  natural 
sciences,  or  what  not.  I  never  put  myself  the  question, 
'  Can  I  write  on  this  subject  ?  .  .  . '  or  '  Am  I  equal 
to  the  task,'  but  I  simply  sit  down  and  write.  Why? 
Because  somebody  who  knows  all  dictates  to  me.  ...  I 
tell  you  candidly  that  whenever  I  write  upon  a  subject 
I  know  little  or  nothing  of,  I  address  myself  to  them 
[the  Mahatmas],  and  one  of  them  inspires  me  ;  /.  ^.,  he 


Madame  Blavatskys  ''his  Unveiled''     217 

allows  me  to  simply  copy  what  I  write  from  manuscripts 
and  even  printed  matter  that  pass  before  my  eyes  in  the 
air,  during  which  process  I  have  never  been  unconscious 
one  single  instant.  .  .  .  It  is  that  knowledge  of  His 
protection  and  faith  in  His  power  that  have  enabled  me 
to  become  mentally  and  spiritually  so  strong." 

In  another  letter  to  her  sister  she  says  :  "  I  certainly 
refuse  point-blank  to  attribute  it  [the  book]  to  my  own 
knowledge  or  memory,  for  I  could  never  arrive  alone 
at  either  such  premises  or  conclusions.  ...  I  tell 
you  seriously  I  am  helped,  and  he  who  helps  me  is  my 
Guru." 

Col.  Olcott  asserts  that  many  pages  of  the  book  w^ere 
thus  written  for  her,  a  ' '  foreign  entity  ' '  making  use  of 
her  organism  or  "shell"  while  she  was  asleep.  He 
refers  to  the  beginning  of  the  chapter  on  the  civiHzation 
of  ancient  Egypt  (vol.  i.,  chap,  xiv.)  as  an  illustration 
of  the  passages  composed  in  this  manner.  Another  large 
part  of  the  subject-matter  of  Isis,  he  maintains,  could  have 
been  drawn  from  no  other  source  than  "from  the  Astral 
Light ' '  over  which  she  had  such  a  wonderful  control. 

The  first  volume  oi  Isis  Unveiled  is  devoted  to  "  Sci- 
ence" and  the  second  to  "  Religion,"  but  no  one  claims 
that  either  volume  has  any  definite  plan  or  logical  ar- 
rangement of  material.  All  admit  that  many  passages 
under  "Science"  might  equally  well  be  put  under 
"Religion"  and  that  many  parts  of  "  Religion  "  might 
more  appropriately  come  in  volume  i.  This  is  accounted 
for  to  the  satisfaction  of  Madame  Blavatsky's  disciples 
by  the  statement  that  she  wrote  down  the  communi- 
cations as  they  were  made  to  her,  logical  consistency 
not  being  considered  in  the  matter. 

In  the  preface  to  the  first  volume  of  Isis  Unveiled, 
Madame  Blavatsky  tells  us  that  ' '  when,  years  ago,  we 


2 1 8  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


first  travelled  over  the  Bast,  exploring  the  penetralia 
of  its  deserted  sanctuaries,  two  saddening  and  ever- 
recurring  questions  oppressed  our  thoughts ;  where, 
who,  what  is  God  ?  Who  ever  saw  the  immortal  spirit 
of  man,  so  as  to  be  able  to  assure  himself  of  man's 
immortality  ? 

''  It  was  while  most  anxious  to  solve  these  perplexing 
problems  that  we  came  into  contact  with  certain  men, 
endowed  with  such  mysterious  powers  and  such  pro- 
found knowledge  that  we  may  truly  designate  them  as 
the  sages  of  the  Orient.  To  their  instructions  we  lent 
a  ready  ear.  They  showed  us  that  by  combining 
science  with  religion,  the  existence  of  God  and  im- 
mortality of  man's  spirit  may  be  demonstrated  like  a 
problem  in  Euclid  .  ,  .  ex  nihilo  iiihil  fit ;  prove  the 
soul  of  man  by  its  wondrous  powers— you  have  proved 
God." 

"In  our  studies,"  she  continues,  ''mysteries  were 
shown  to  be  no  mysteries.  Names  and  places  that  to 
the  Western  mind  have  only  a  significance  derived 
from  Eastern  fable  were  shown  to  be  realities.  Rev- 
erently we  stepped  in  spirit  within  the  temple  of  Isis,  to 
lift  aside  the  veil  of  '  the  one  that  is  and  was  and  shall 
be '  at  Sais  ;  to  look  through  the  rent  curtain  of  the 
Sanctum  Sanctorum  at  Jerusalem ;  and  even  to  inter- 
rogate within  the  crypts  which  once  existed  beneath 
the  sacred  edifice  the  mysterious  Bath-Kol." 

Following  the  preface  comes  a  section  consisting  of 
about  forty  pages,  entitled  "  Before  the  Veil,"  in  which 
Madame  Blavatsky  claims  that  the  present  chaotic  state 
of  affairs  in  all  lands  on  the  subject  of  religion  is  wholly 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  modern  world  is  unwilhng 
to  follow  the  wisdom  handed  down  to  us  from  the 
prehistoric  sages  of  the  Far  East. 


Madame  Blavatskys  ''his  Unveiled'"     219 


The  greatest  revealer  of  divine  truths  within  the 
past  twenty-five  centuries,  she  declares,  was  Plato,  and 
he  "mirrored  faithfully  in  his  works  the  spiritualism 
of  the  Vedic  philosophers  who  lived  and  wrote  thou- 
sands of  years  before  his  day,  and  its  metaphysical 
expression.  Nyasa,  Djeming,  Kapila,  Vrihaspati,  Su- 
mati,  and  so  many  others  will  be  found  to  have  trans- 
mitted their  indelible  imprint  though  the  intervening 
centuries  upon  Plato  and  his  school  "  (p.  xi.). 

They  all  sought  for  the  truly  real,  the  always- 
existing,  the  permanent  as  distinguished  from  the 
fleeting  and  transitory,  and  they  found  it  in  God  as 
the  first  principle  of  all  principles,  the  Supreme  Idea 
upon  which  all  other  ideas  are  grounded,  the  ultimate 
substance  from  which  all  things  derive  their  being  and 
essence.  With  these  sages  God  is  discernible  only  by 
the  elect,  by  those  who  have  prepared  themselves  by  a 
rigid  discipline  of  the  mind  and  body  to  receive  him. 
*'This,"  says  Madame  Blavatsky,  **  was  also  the 
teaching  of  Jesus,  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  The- 
osophists,  who  said  to  his  little  circle  of  chosen  dis- 
ciples, '  To  you  it  is  given  to  know  the  mysteries  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God,  but  to  them  [the  uninitiated 
masses]  it  is  not  given.'  " 

Among  the  ancient  institutions  that  Madame  Blavat- 
sky highly  extols  are  the  Kleusinian  Mysteries  of  the 
Greeks.  These  vShe  regards  as  the  type  of  all  true 
reUgion,  and  claims  that  only  those  who  have  passed 
through  such  an  initiation  as  they  prescribe  are  fitted 
to  have  ''  friendship  and  interior  communication  with 
God,  and  the  enjoyment  of  that  felicity  which  arises 
from  intimate  converse  with  divine  beings." 

Many  pages  of  this  section  of  her  book  Madame 
Blavatsky  devotes  to  an  explanation  of  the  unusual 


2  2  o  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

terms  she  makes  use  of.  The  following  are  a  few  of 
them  :  "  ^throbacy  is  the  Greek  name  for  walking  or 
being  lifted  in  the  air ;  levitation,  so-called,  among 
modern  spiritualists.  It  may  be  either  conscious  or 
unconscious.  ..."  ''Were  our  physicians  to  experi- 
ment on  such  levitated  subjects,  it  would  be  found  that 
they  are  strongly  charged  with  a  similar  form  of  elec- 
tricity to  that  of  the  spot  which,  according  to  the  law 
of  gravitation,  ought  to  attract  them,  or  rather  prevent 
their  levitation.  And,  if  some  physical  nervous  dis- 
order, as  well  as  spiritual  ecstasy,  produce  uncon- 
sciously to  the  subject  the  same  effects,  it  proves  that 
if  this  force  in  nature  were  properly  studied,  it  could 
be  regulated  at  will." 

"  Everything  pertaining  to  the  spiritual  world  must 
come  to  us  through  the  stars,  and  if  we  are  in  friend- 
ship with  them,  we  may  attain  the  greatest  magical 
effects." 

' '  The  Astral  I^ight  is  identical  with  the  Hindu 
Akasa.  .  .  .  The  language  of  the  Vedas  shows 
that  the  Hindus  of  fifty  centuries  ago  ascribed  to  it  the 
same  properties  as  do  the  Thibetan  lamas  of  the  present 
day.  That  they  regarded  it  as  the  source  of  life,  the 
reservoir  of  all  energy,  and  the  propeller  of  every 
change  of  matter. "  "  The  Brahmanical  expression  '  to 
stir  up  the  Brahma,'  means  to  stir  up  this  power.  .  .  . 
This  is  the  evident  origin  of  the  Christian  dogma  of 
transubstantiation.' ' 

*  *  Elemental  spirits  ' '  are  ' '  the  creatures  evolved  in 
the  four  kingdoms  of  earth,  air,  fire,  and  water,  and 
called  by  the  kabalists  gnomes,  sylphs,  salamanders, 
and  undines.  They  may  be  termed  the  forces  of  na- 
ture, and  will  either  operate  effects  as  the  servile  agents 
of  general  law,  or  may  be  employed  by  the  disembodied 


Madame  Blavatskys  ''  Isis  Unveiled''     221 

spirits — whether  pure  or  impure — and  by  living  adepts 
of  magic  and  sorcery,  to  produce  desired  phenomenal 
results.  Such  beings  never  become  men. 
They  have  been  seen,  feared,  blessed,  banned,  and  in- 
voked in  every  quarter  of  the  globe  and  in  every  age. 
.  .  .  These  elementals  are  the  principal  agents 
of  disembodied  but  never  visible  spirits  at  seances, 
and  the  producers  of  all  the  phenomena  except  the 
subjective." 

Madame  Blavatsky  strongly  commends  the  fakirs  of 
India,  who  generally  are  attached  to  the  Brahmanical 
pagodas  and  practise  the  laws  of  Manu.  She  says  of 
them  that  they  are  so  genuinely  devoted  to  religion 
that  they  go  about  almost  naked,  carrying  only  a 
few  such  objects  as  a  tiny  flute  for  charming  ser- 
pents, and  a  magical  bamboo-rod,  about  a  foot  long, 
with  the  seven  mystical  knots  upon  it.  These  they 
conceal  in  their  long  hair  when  they  are  not  in  use. 
No  fakir  will  allow  any  one  to  take  his  rod  from  him, 
because  he  received  it  from  his  guru  on  the  day  of  his 
initiation,  and  he  produces  all  of  his  marvellous  occult 
phenomena  through  its  power.  The  self-imposed  pun- 
ishments he  inflicts  upon  himself,  such  as  flaying  the 
limbs  alive,  cutting  off  the  toes  or  feet,  tearing  out  the 
eyes,  immensely  hasten  the  development  of  his  relig- 
ious life.  He  thus  attains  such  a  high  degree  of  saint- 
hood that  he  will  laugh  to  scorn  every  imaginable 
torture,  persuaded  that  the  more  his  outer  body  is 
mortified,  the  brighter  and  holier  becomes  his  inner, 
spiritual  body. 

Madame  Blavatsky  makes  much  of  the  word  *'  Her- 
metic, ' '  which  she  defines  as  coming  ' '  from  Hermes, 
the  god  of  Wisdom,  known  in  Egypt,  Syria,  and 
Phoenicia,  as  Thot,  Tat,  Adad,  Seth,  Sat-an  (the  latter 


2  2  2  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

not  to  be  taken  in  the  sense  applied  to  it  by  Moslems 
and  Christians),  and  in  Greece  as  Kadmus."  He  is 
known  in  Egypt  as  ' '  the  friend  and  instructor  of  Isis 
and  Osiris." 

"  Initiates,"  according  to  Madame  Blavatsky,  meant 
' '  in  times  of  antiquity  those  who  had  been  initiated 
into  the  arcane  knowledge  taught  by  the  hierophants 
of  the  Mysteries ;  and  in  our  modern  days  those  who 
have  been  initiated  by  the  adepts  of  mystic  lore  into 
the  mysterious  knowledge,  which,  notwithstanding  the 
lapse  of  ages,  has  yet  a  few  real  votaries  on  the  earth." 

Before  concluding  this  introduction,  Madame  Bla- 
vatsky summarizes  the  two  remaining  sections  of  her 
work  with  the  following  statement :  "  In  undertaking 
to  inquire  into  the  assumed  infallibility  of  Modern 
Science  and  Theology,  the  author  has  been  forced, 
even  at  the  risk  of  being  thought  discursive,  to  make 
constant  comparison  of  the  ideas,  achievements,  and 
pretensions  of  their  representatives,  with  those  of  the 
ancient  philosophers  and  religious  teachers.  .  .  . 
We  wish  to  show  how  inevitable  were  their  innumer- 
able failures,  and  how  they  must  continue  until  these 
pretended  authorities  of  the  West  go  to  the  Brahmans 
and  lyamaists  of  the  Far  Orient,  and  respectfully  ask 
them  to  impart  the  alphabet  of  true  science." 

The  first  of  these  sections  begins  with  these  words  : 
' '  There  exists  somewhere  in  this  wide  world  an  old 
book,— so  very  old  that  our  modern  antiquarians  might 
ponder  over  its  pages  an  indefinite  time,  and  still  not 
quite  agree  as  to  the  nature  of  the  fabric  upon  which 
it  is  written.  It  is  the  only  original  copy  now  in 
existence. 

"The  most  ancient  Hebrew  document  on  occult  learn- 
ing—the Siphra  Dzeniouta — was  compiled  from  it,  and 


Madame  Blavatskys  "  his  Unveiled'"     223 

that  at  a  time  when  the  former  was  already  considered 
in  the  light  of  a  literary  relic." 

The  following  extracts  fairly  illustrate  the  character 
and  contents  of  this  so-called  scientific  section  of  the 
work.  "  A  conviction  founded  upon  seventy  thousand 
years  of  experience,  as  they  allege,  has  been  entertained 
by  Hermetic  philosophers  of  all  periods  that  matter  has 
in  time  become,  through  sin,  more  gross  and  dense  than 
it  was  at  man's  first  formation;  that  at  the  beginning, 
the  human  body  was  of  a  half-ethereal  nature  ;  and  that, 
before  the  fall,  mankind  communed  freely  with  now 
unseen  universes."  "The  same  belief  in  the  pre-ex- 
istence  of  a  far  more  spiritual  race  than  the  one  to  which 
we  now  belong  can  be  traced  back  to  the  earliest  tra- 
ditions of  nearly  every  people.  In  the  ancient  Quiche 
manuscript,  published  by  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg — the 
Popol  Vuh, — the  first  men  are  mentioned  as  a  race  that 
could  reason  and  speak,  whose  sight  was  unlimited,  and 
who  knew  all  things  at  once.  .  .  .  And  the  unequi- 
vocal statement  of  the  anonymous  Gnostic  who  wrote 
the  Gospel  according  to  John  that  *  as  many  as  received 
Him,'  i.e.,  who  followed  practically  the  esoteric  doc- 
trine of  Jesus,  would  *  become  the  sons  of  God,'  points 
to  the  same  belief.  .  .  .  From  the  remotest  periods 
religious  philosophies  taught  that  the  whole  universe 
was  filled  with  divine  and  spiritual  beings  of  divers 
races.  From  one  of  these  evolved,  in  course  of  time, 
Adam,  the  primitive  man." 

At  the  outset  of  the  second  volume,  Madame  Blavat- 
sky  asserts  that  every  Christian  doctrine  had  its  origin 
in  a  heathen  rite,  and  says  that  what  she  undertakes  to 
do  is  "  to  compare  the  Christian  dogmas  and  miracles 
with  the  doctrines  and  phenomena  of  ancient  magic." 

"  There  never  was,"  she  declares,  "  nor  ever  will  be 


224  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


a  truly  philosophical  mind,  whether  Pagan,  heathen, 
Jew,  or  Christian,  but  has  followed  the  same  Hne  of 
thought.  Gautama-Buddha  is  mirrored  in  the  precepts 
of  Christ ;  Paul  and  Philo  Judaeus  are  faithful  echoes 
of  Plato  ;  and  Ammonius  Saccas  and  Plotinus  won  their 
immortal  fame  by  combining  the  teachings  of  all  these 
gr  at  masters  of  true  philosophy  "  (p.  84). 

The  subsequent  pages  of  the  work  attempt  to  vindi- 
cate this  assertion.  By  copious  quotations  from  the 
writings  of  a  great  array  of  rehgious  leaders,  ancient  and 
modern,  she  undertakes  to  show  that  all  true  doctrines 
in  religion  have  come  down  to  us  from  a  pre- Buddhistic 
race  of  beings,  and  are  not  in  any  sense  the  product  of 
modern  thought. 

In  order  more  fully  to  explain  her  views,  Madame 
Blavatsky  followed  his  Uiiveiled  with  another  larger 
work,  entitled  The  Secret  Doctrine.  But  as  neither 
work  sets  forth  any  definite  notions  as  to  her  positive 
religious  beliefs  she  prepared  a  hand-book  for  her  dis- 
ciples with  the  title.  The  Key  to  Theosophy.  To  show 
what  modern  Theosophy  really  claims  to  be,  we  quote 
a  few  passages  from  this  work  : 

"Theosophy  is  Divine  Wisdom,  such  as  that  possessed 
by  the  gods. ' ' 

"  We  believe  in  a  Universal  Divine  Principle,  the  root 
of  All,  from  which  all  proceeds,  and  within  which  all 
shall  be  absorbed  at  the  end  of  the  great  cycle  of  Being. ' ' 
'*  When  we  speak  of  the  Deity  and  make  it  identical, 
hence  coeval,  with  Nature,  the  eternal  and  uncreated 
nature  is  meant." 

' '  An  Occultist  or  a  Theosophist  addresses  his  prayer 
to  his  Father  which  is  in  secret  .  .  .  and  that  '  Father  ' 
is  in  man  himself."  "  The  inner  man  is  the  only  God 
we  have  coo:nizance  of. ' ' 


Madame  B  lav  at  sky  ^s  "-  his  Unveiled''      225 

''Our  philosophy  teaches  us  that  as  there  are  seven 
fundamental  forces  in  nature,  and  seven  planes  of  being, 
so  there  are  seven  states  of  consciousness  in  which  man 
can  live,  think,  remember,  and  have  his  being  "  (p.  89). 

These  *'  seven  planes  of  being  "  vary  all  the  way  from 
that  of  the  rupa  or  physical  body  up  to  the  atma  or  pure 
spirit. 

* '  The  spiritual  ego  can  act  only  when  the  personal 
ego  is  paralyzed.  .  .  .  Could  the  former  manifest 
itself  uninterruptedly,  and  without  impediment,  there 
would  be  no  longer  men  on  earth,  but  we  should  all  be 
gods"  (p.  131).  By  the  proper  training  of  his  faculties 
man  passes  from  the  lyower  to  the  Higher  I^ife  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  law  of  Karma,  or  ''the  universal  law 
of  retributive  justice. ' ' 

"  Theosophy  considers  humanity  as  an  emanation 
from  divinity  on  its  return  path  thereto.  At  an  advanced 
point  upon  the  path,  Adeptship  is  reached  by  those 
who  have  devoted  several  incarnations  to  its  achieve- 
ment" (p.  217). 

The  chief  duty  of  a  Theosophist  is  "to  control  and 
conquer  through  the  higher,  the  lower  self.  To  purify 
himself  inwardly  and  morally  ;  to  fear  no  one  and 
nought,  save  the  tribunal  of  his  own  conscience" 
(p.  241). 

Madame  Blavatsky,  whose  maiden  name  was  Helena 
Petrovna  Hahn,  was  born  in  the  southern  part  of 
Russia,  of  noble  and  wealthy  parents,  July  31,  1831. 
She  was  a  bright,  excitable,  and  erratic  child,  with  a 
strength  of  body  far  beyond  her  years.  According  to 
the  recently  published  letters  of  her  sister,  she  was 
frequently  doing  things  in  the  presence  of  her  play  mates 
that  were  beyond  the  ken  of  man  to  understand. 

At  seventeen  years  of  age  she  married  a  prominent 


2  26  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

councillor  of  state,  but  lived  with  her  husband  only  a 
few  weeks,  when  they  separated  by  mutual  consent. 
Entirely  dissatisfied  with  the  traditional  and  formal 
religion  of  her  country,  and  impelled  by  a  genuine 
desire  to  know  more  about  the  extraordinary  religious 
experiences  of  the  Orient,  of  which  she  had  often  heard, 
she  left  her  home  and  went  to  India.  Although  igno- 
rant of  the  language  and  customs  of  the  country,  she 
spent  several  years  in  penetrating  almost  every  nook 
and  corner  of  the  Orient  in  search  of  ancient  mysteries 
and  sacred  lore.  She  seems  to  have  been  almost  wholly 
dependent  upon  what  was  told  her,  and  beyond  ques- 
tion she  was  often  radically  misled  by  those  with  whom 
she  came  in  contact. 

In  1 85 1  she  visited  Quebec  to  study  the  Indians  in 
that  vicinity,  and  then  went  to  New  Orleans  to  ac- 
quaint herself  with  the  Voodoos.  From  there  she  went 
to  Mexico  and  back  to  Bombay.  Later,  she  made  a 
trip  around  the  world,  stopping  in  New  York,  Chicago, 
and  San  Francisco,  and  spending  several  months  in 
Japan.  In  1855,  after  many  previous  unsuccessful 
attempts,  she  finally  obtained  an  entrance  into  Tibet, 
one  of  the  most  inaccessible  portions  of  the  earth,  where 
few,  if  any,  white  w^omen  had  ever  before  been  allowed 
to  penetrate. 

In  all  probability,  after  some  years  she  was  initiated 
by  the  priests  of  the  country  into  their  sacred  mystical 
rites.  While  in  Tibet  she  fell  from  her  horse  down  a 
steep  embankment,  receiving  injuries  w^hich  resulted 
in  a  fracture  of  the  spine.  In  consequence  of  this 
accident,  it  is  stated  on  good  authority  that  she  went 
through  many  strange  psychological  experiences,  and 
for  eighteen  months  led  a  completely  dual  existence. 

On  leaving  Tibet  she  conceived  the  idea  of  founding 


Madame  Blavatsky's  ''  his  Unveiled''     227 

a  new  religion  for  the  Western  world,  and  she  entered 
heart  and  soul  into  the  undertaking.  Starting  out  with 
the  assumption  that  every  founder  of  a  religion  must 
work  miracles,  she  often  allowed  herself  to  indulge  in 
the  most  barefaced  trickery  to  gain  attention  to  her 
cause.  In  view  of  the  exposures  made  by  the  Society 
for  Psychical  Research  of  her  performances,  none  of  her 
admirers  deny  the  fact,  but  they  explain  it  on  the  basis 
(as  one  of  them  expresses  it)  that  any  religion,  in  order 
to  grow,  must  be  manured ;  that  people  are  so  averse 
to  a  new  religious  truth  that  any  means  of  arousing 
their  interest  in  it  is  legitimate. 

As  to  the  character  and  value  of  Madame  Blavatsky 's 
claims  regarding  the  religions  of  India,  no  man  is  more 
competent  to  tell  us  than  Max  Miiller,  the  famous 
Oriental  scholar  of  Oxford  University.  The  statements 
that  follow  are  taken  almost  wholly  from  his  article  in 
The  Nineteenth  Century  on  **  Ksoteric  Buddhism,"  pub- 
lished shortly  after  Madame  Blavatsky' s  death  in 
London  in  1891. 

''I  am  quite  willing,"  he  says,  ''to  allow  that 
Madame  Blavatsky  started  out  with  good  intentions, 
that  she  saw  and  was  dazzled  by  a  glimmering  of  truth 
in  various  religions  of  the  world,  that  she  believed  in 
the  possibility  of  a  mystic  union  of  the  soul  with  God, 
and  that  she  was  most  anxious  to  discover  in  a  large 
number  of  books  traces  of  that  theosophic  intuition 
which  re-unites  human  nature  with  the  Divine.  Un- 
fortunately, she  was  without  the  tools  to  dig  for  these 
treasures  in  the  ancient  literature  of  the  world,  and  her 
mistakes  in  quoting  from  Sanskrit,  Greek,  and  Latin 
would  be  amusing  if  they  did  not  appeal  to  our  sym- 
pathy rather  for  a  woman  who  thought  she  could  fly 
though  she  had  no  wings,  not  even  those  of  Icarus." 


2  28  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

his  Unveiled  Professor  Miiller  regards  as  a  work  of 
prodigious  labor  and  ingenuity,  bristling  with  notes 
and  references  both  wise  and  foolish,— a  monument  of 
misdirected  energy.  The  fundamental  ideas  upon 
which  it  is  based,  so  far  as  we  can  get  at  them,  have 
in  point  of  fact  little  or  no  tangible  ground. 

Speaking  of  the  pre-Vedic  documents  and  the  Mahat- 
mas,  of  which  Madame  Blavatsky  makes  so  much,  he 
writes  :  '*  When  asked  for  the  production  of  those  MSS., 
or  for  an  introduction  to  these  learned  Mahatmas — for 
India  is  not  so  diflficult  to  reach  as  it  was  in  the  days 
of  Marco  Polo, — they  are  never  forthcoming.  Nay,  the 
curious  thing  is  that  real  Sanskrit  scholars  who  have 
spent  their  lives  in  India,  and  who  know  Sanskrit  and 
Pali  well,  know  absolutely  nothing  of  such  MSS., 
nothing  of  such  teachers  of  mysteries.  They  are  never 
known  except  to  people  who  are  ignorant  of  Sanskrit 
or  Pali."  "The  very  idea  that  there  are  secret  and 
sacred  MSS.,  or  that  there  ever  was  any  mystery  about 
the  religion  of  the  Brahmans,  is  by  this  time  thoroughly 
exploded." 

"  Madame  Blavatsky's  powers  of  creation  were  very 
great  ;  whether  she  wished  to  have  intercourse  with 
Mahatmas,  astral  bodies,  or  ghosts  of  any  kind.  .  .  . 
So  long  as  she  placed  her  Mahatmas  beyond  the  Hima- 
layas, both  she  and  her  witnesses  were  quite  safe  from 
any  detectives  or  cross-examining  lawyers." 

"  But  when  we  come  to  examine  what  these  deposi- 
taries of  primeval  wisdom,  the  Mahatmas  of  Tibet  and 
of  the  sacred  Ganges,  are  supposed  to  have  taught  her, 
we  find  no  mysteries,  nothing  very  new,  nothing  very 
old,  but  simply  a  medley  of  well-known,  though 
generally  misunderstood,  Brahmanic  and  Buddhistic 
doctrines." 


Madame  Blavatskys  '' his  Unveiled''     229 

That  there  are  in  India,  Mahatmas  or  "  Great  Souls," 
as  the  word  literally  signifies,  no  one  doubts.  The 
term  is  applied  to  men  who  have  retired  from  the  world 
and  by  long  ascetic  practices  have  subdued  their  pas- 
sions and  have  acquired  a  reputation  for  sanctity  and 
knowledge.  They  often  perform  startling  feats  and 
submit  themselves  to  terrible  tortures.  A  few  of  them 
have  distinguished  themselves  as  scholars. 

But,  says  Professor  Miiller,  ' '  that  some  of  these  so- 
called  Mahatmas  are  impostors  is  but  too  well  known  to 
all  who  live  in  India.  I  am  quite  ready  to  believe,  there- 
fore, that  Madame  Blavatsky  and  her  friends  were  taken 
in  by  persons  who  pretended  to  be  Mahatmas,  though 
it  has  never  been  explained  in  what  language  even 
they  could  have  communicated  their  Esoteric  Buddhism 
to  their  European  pupil.  Madame  Blavatsky  was,  ac- 
cording to  her  own  showing,  quite  unable  to  gauge 
their  knowledge  or  to  test  their  honesty." 

With  these  facts  before  us,  it  does  not  need  any  further 
argument  to  show  that  no  discoverable  ground  exists 
for  the  claim  that  the  bible  of  the  Theosophists,  or  fol- 
lowers of  the  so-called  Wisdom  Religion,  sets  forth  *'a 
primeval,  preternatural  revelation  granted  to  the  fathers 
of  the  human  race."  It  grew  up,  as  we  have  found  all 
other  bibles  to  have  done,  out  of  the  experiences,  real 
or  imaginar}^,  of  man. 

This  position  does  not  belittle  the  fact  that  every  relig- 
ion of  to-day  is  immensely  indebted  to  the  religions  of 
the  past.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  conceive  of  an  ab- 
solutely new  religion.  At  all  events,  every  religion  we 
know  presupposes  an  antecedent  religion,  just  as  every 
man  we  know  presupposes  an  antecedent  man.  No  relig- 
ion better  illustrates  this  truth  than  Christianity.  For 
it  presupposes  Judaism  and  Greek  philosophy,  and  Juda- 


230  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

ism  presupposes  the  religions  of  Babylon  and  Nineveh. 
They  in  turn  reach  back  to  a  more  ancient  Accadian 
religion.  Farther  our  present  knowledge  will  not  per- 
mit us  to  go. 

The  Theosophists  have  undoubtedly  carried  their 
respect  for  antiquity  entirely  too  far.  They  are  greatly 
misled  by  accepting  many  of  the  exploded  notions  of 
the  past,  but  the  emphasis  they  put  upon  the  universal 
brotherhood  of  man  is  worthy  of  the  highest  regard. 

Since  his  Unveiled  first  appeared  in  New  York,  the 
Theosophical  Society,  like  every  other  similar  under- 
taking, has  had  its  successes  and  failures.  In  1879,  its 
headquarters  were  moved  to  Adyar,  Madras,  India, 
where  Colonel  Olcott  till  1907  presided  over  its  destinies. 
In  1905,  he  reported  that  600  branches  of  the  society 
now  exist  in  forty-two  countries.  In  Ceylon  alone  he 
tells  us  the  society  has  250  schools  and  three  colleges 
with  over  30,000  pupils.  According  to  some  authorities, 
it  has  many  thousand  followers  in  France,  where  they 
often  call  themselves  Christian  Buddhists. 

The  head  of  the  English  branch,  and  the  successor  of 
Madame  Blavatsky,  is  Mrs.  Annie  Besant.  She  is  re- 
ported to  be  one  of  the  most  eloquent  women  of  her  time. 
Prof.  Max  Miiller  says  that  when  Madame  Blavatsky 
went  to  Oxford  to  lecture,  he  was  told  on  good  author- 
ity that  the  students  sat  and  listened  to  her  for  six  hours 
in  succession.  A  gentleman  who  was  present  on  the 
occasion  told  the  writer  that  Mrs.  Besant  had  almost 
the  same  experience  when  she  lectured  a  few  years  ago 
to  the  students  in  Glasgow.  Her  article  in  the  Oiitlook 
for  October  14,  1893,  entitled,  "  What  is  Theosophy  ?" 
explains  her  views. 

There  are  branches  of  the  society  in  New  York  and 
other  American  cities,  but  the  most  successful  Raja  Yoga 


Madame  Blavatskys  *'  his  Unveiled''     231 

school  in  this  country  is  probably  at  Point  Loma,  Cal., 
which  is  fully  described  in  the  January  number  of  the 
Americafi  Magazine  for  1907.  It  is  presided  over  by 
Mrs.  Katherine  Tingley,  a  Massachusetts  woman  who 
was  for  many  years  engaged  in  philanthropic  work  in 
and  about  New  York.  The  school  is  liberally  supported 
by  a  number  of  wealthy  men  from  different  parts  of  the 
United  States  who  are  now  members  of  the  Brotherhood, 
such  as  A.  G.  Spalding  and  F.  M.  Pierceof  New  York, 
W.  C.  Temple  of  Pittsburg,  and  W.  F.  Hanson  of 
Georgia.  Ex-Secretary  Lyman  B.  Gage,  though  not 
living  in  the  Brotherhood,  resides  near  it  and  is 
deeply  interested  in  its  work. 

"  Theosophy,"  saysE.  D.Walkerin  the  ^r^;z«  (Janu- 
ary, 1893),  **  enrolls  the  founders  of  all  religions —Jesus, 
Gautama,  Confucius,  Zoroaster,  and  Mahomet.  It 
includes  the  great  religious  spirits  of  every  age — like 
Swedenborg,  Madame  Guyon,  Saint  Martin,  and  Jacob 
Bohme.  Especially  notable  is  the  theosophical  trend 
of  those  seers  of  all  times,  the  poets.  Conspicuous  just 
now  are  Browning,  Swinburne,  Tennyson,  Aldrich, 
Whitman.  The  great  philosophers,  too,  run  in  the 
same  direction.  .  .  .  Theosophy  regards  pure  Chris- 
tianity as  the  best  religion  for  the  western  world .  Jesus 
was  an  Adept  of  the  highest  order— a  perfect  man,  re- 
presenting what  we  may  attain  ultimately.  But  the 
pure  fountain  has  been  so  fouled  by  the  church  that  a 
careful  filtering  is  needed  to  obtain  the  crystal  water  of 
life." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THK   RKI.ATION  OF  THE   FINE  ARTS  TO   REI^IGION. 

Art,  in  the  broadest  sense  of  the  term,  denotes 
simply  the  use  of  means  for  the  accomplishment  of 
some  desired  end  or  purpose.  It  is  not  applied  to  the 
activity  or  products  of  nature,  although  it  is  closely  re- 
lated to  those  products.  Strictly  speaking  there  is  no 
picture  till  man  paints  it,  no  music  till  man  makes  it, 
no  poetry  till  man  composes  it.  Nevertheless,  nature 
furnishes  all  the  material  for  art  to  work  upon,  and  is 
the  guide  of  man  in  its  pursuit. 

It  is  not  the  mission  of  any  art  to  invent  new  ele- 
ments. Its  only  function  is  to  put  the  old  into  new 
forms  and  combinations.  No  genius  in  art,  however 
gifted,  can  add  a  new  species  to  either  the  animal  or 
vegetable  kingdom,  or  a  new  aspect  to  land  or  sea  or 
sky.  All  any  artist  can  possibly  do  is  to  make  use 
of  the  boundless  variety  of  elements  that  nature  has 
already  presented  to  him,  and  he  has  neither  the  ability 
nor  the  opportunity  to  transcend  these  limits. 

For  this  reason,  art  must  always  at  first  be  imitative. 
It  is  in  this  sense,  and  this  only,  that  it  is  the  business 
of  art  to  "  hold  the  mirror  up  to  nature."  Not  until 
art  has  first  mastered  the  material  that  nature  offers 
and  discerned  its  law  and  method  of  working,  can  it  go 
forward  and  reproduce  it  in  new  combinations  with 
something  like  the  freedom  and  boldness  of  nature. 
For  she  scorns  to  imitate,  and  never  repeats  herself. 
No  art  can  be  true  to  nature,  in  the  proper  sense  of  that 

232 


The  Fine  Arts  ajzd  Religion  233 

term,  until  it  has  so  perfectly  acquired  a  knowledge  of 
nature's  elements  and  ways  of  working  that  it  goes 
infinitely  beyond  imitation  ;  until,  indeed,  the  power 
of  creating  new  forms  has  so  developed  that  all  need  of 
imitation  has  ceased  to  exist. 

For  the  real  artist  is  not  held  down  by  the  limitations 
of  the  individual  characteristics  of  the  object  before 
him,  but  he  sees  the  specific  or  typical  in  it,  and  this  it 
is  that  he  endeavors  to  express.  The  actual  in  its  pre- 
cise historic  existence  has  appeared  but  once,  and  will 
never  appear  again.  In  its  essentials,  however,  it  is 
continually  reappearing  and  ever  repeating  itself. 
Hence  it  is  that  the  ideal  is  of  far  more  value  than  the 
real.  As  another  expresses  it,  "There  is  more  truth 
in  that  which  may  often  be  than  in  that  which  is  known 
to  have  been  but  once. ' '  Any  work  of  art  that  tells  us 
what  has  been  a  thousand  times  and  what  may  be  a 
thousand  times  again  has  gained  a  mastery  over  the 
actual,  and  for  that  very  reason  captivates  the  heart. 

All  the  arts  that  man  has  devised  are  conveniently 
divided  into  those  that  minister  to  his  material  neces- 
sities or  convenience,  and  those  that  are  intended  to 
arouse  and  satisfy  his  higher  aesthetic  powers.  The 
former  are  properly  called  useful  or  mechanical  arts, 
and  their  number  and  variety  greatly  vary  with  the 
progress  of  a  people  in  industry  and  wealth.  The 
latter,  because  they  appeal  to  and  delight  the  sense  of 
beauty,  have  come  to  be  known  as  the  beautiful  or  fine 
arts  in  all  the  languages  of  modern  civilized  lands. 
The  fine  arts  are  often  found  in  combination  with  the 
useful  arts,  but  it  is  usually  an  easy  matter  in  such 
cases  to  separate  the  part  that  is  beautiful  from  the 
part  that  merely  serves  a  practical  purpose. 

By  common  consent  the  five  principal  fine  arts  are 


234  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


Architecture,  Sculpture,  Painting,  Music,  and  Poetry. 
But  how  they  should  be  arranged  or  classified  is  still 
far  from  settled.  Some  would  treat  them  from  the 
standpoint  of  their  conformity  to  nature  ;  others  from 
the  point  of  view  of  their  historical  development ;  and 
others  still  from  the  psychological  impulse  which  called 
them  into  being.  But  the  classification  of  Hegel  is  the 
most  satisfactory  for  our  purpose,  for  he  treats  them 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  ideas  that  they  express,  and 
the  amount  of  matter  that  is  needed  to  express  them. 
Architecture  is  therefore  the  lowest  of  the  fine  arts.  It 
is  primarily  a  useful  art,  and  only  secondarily  a  fine 
art.  Stone  is  its  most  natural  material.  I^arge  quanti- 
ties of  it  may  be  used  in  its  constructions,  which  are 
held  together  by  the  great  universal  force  of  gravity. 
Massiveness,  silent  earnestness,  immovability,  are  its 
fundamental  characteristics. 

Sculpture  is  a  higher  art  than  architecture.  For 
although  its  chief  material  is  also  stone,  it  advances 
from  the  inorganic  world  to  the  organic.  It  fashions 
the  stone  into  a  bodily  form,  and  makes  every  part  of 
it  a  vehicle  of  thought  and  feeling.  In  any  genuine 
piece  of  sculpture  there  is  nothing  left  of  the  material 
that  does  not  serve  in  some  way  to  give  expression  to 
the  thought  of  the  artist.  Every  part  of  the  Apollo 
Belvedere,  for  example,  breathes  forth  a  magnificent 
defiance  and  disdain  of  the  enemy,  just  as  the  writer  of 
the  Iliad  depicts  him.  Even  the  scarf  on  his  arm  is 
instinct  with  passion. 

With  painting  the  medium  is  no  longer  a  coarse 
material  substance  like  stone  or  bronze,  but  merely  a 
plain  colored  surface  ;  and  yet  on  that  surface  it  can 
represent  all  the  dimensions  of  space.  It  expresses  its 
ideas  and  feelings  by  the  mere  play  of  light  and  shade. 


The  Fine  Arts  and  Religion  235 


On  a  small  bit  of  canvas  can  be  compressed  a  multitude 
of  individual  forms,  each  animated  with  his  own  char- 
acteristic thoughts,  and  giving  vent  to  his  own  peculiar 
passions. 

Music  manifests  itself  through  sound  alone.  It  is 
a  mode  of  motion,  and  motion  is  the  natural  language 
of  emotion.  It  arouses  the  mind  to  activity  through 
the  ear,  just  as  architecture  and  sculpture  and  paint- 
ing do  through  the  eye.  Certain  aerial  vibrations  fall- 
ing upon  the  auditory  nerve  give  rise  to  regularly 
varying  mental  images,  called  sensations  of  tone.  ' '  Of 
the  ten  or  eleven  thousand  tones  which  may  be  dis- 
tinguished in  consciousness,  music  uses  a  comparatively 
small  number.  Our  own  elaborate  musical  system  in- 
cludes only  eighty-five  or  ninety,  ranging  from  about 
forty  to  four  thousand  vibrations  per  second  ;  some- 
thing less  than  seven  octaves."  Through  this  exceed- 
ingly limited  medium  music  makes  its  appeal  to  all  the 
mental  powers.  For  it  arouses  thought  and  action,  as 
well  as  feeling.  The  hearer  may  be  stirred  by  it'  to 
form  imaginations,  retrospections,  and  resolves  as  truly 
as  emotions  and  desires. 

Poetry  is  the  tongue  of  art  let  loose,  so  to  speak.  It 
can  represent  everything  by  mere  words,  and  a  word  is. 
a  sign  or  representation  of  an  idea.  In  a  certain  sense 
it  can  make  all  the  other  arts  contribute  to  its  purpose. 
With  the  least  amount  of  matter  it  can  communicate 
the  greatest  variety  of  ideas,  extend  itself  over  the 
greatest  range  of  feeHng,  and  most  powerfully  affect 
the  will. 

Here  we  need  to  note  the  fact  and  point  out  in  some 
detail  its  importance  to  our  subject  that  the  fine  arts 
described  above,  even  when  carried  to  the  climax  of 
their  development,  include  only  a  portion,  and  that  a 


236  The  Sphere  of  Religio7i 


small  one,  of  the  field  of  the  beautiful.  As  Plato  has 
wisely  said,  all  beauty  is  the  outshining  of  the  truth. 
Wherever  any  truth  shows  itself  in  some  concrete  form, 
there  is  beaut}^  All  the  truth  there  is  in  this  world 
is  manifested  to  us  in  the  works  of  God.  All  beauty, 
therefore,  is  the  expression  of  his  thoughts,  and  man 
is  enabled  to  express  beauty  as  he  gets  acquainted  with 
those  thoughts.  The  fine  arts  are  merely  the  attempts 
of  man  to  embody  as  best  he  may  some  of  the  thoughts 
of  God.  In  other  words,  every  object  in  the  universe, 
whether  the  product  of  God  or  man,  is  beautiful  just  in 
proportion  as  it  reveals  ideal  perfection. 

Matter  alone  is  not  beautiful.  It  is  only  the  idea  or 
thought  that  the  matter  expresses  that  is  beautiful. 
Hence  it  is  that  objects  in  nature  or  art  are  beautiful  in 
different  degrees.  The  ideals  they  represent  are  of 
higher  or  lower  grades  according  to  the  value  of  the 
elements  that  enter  into  their  composition.  The  ideal 
of  a  human  being  is  higher  than  that  of  any  animal, 
and  the  ideal  of  a  tree  than  that  of  a  pebble.  Even  one 
Madonna  differs  from  another  Madonna  in  glory.  For 
some  represent  merely  the  happy  mother,  while  others 
chiefly  magnify  the  sense  of  relationship  to  the  divine. 
Although  any  object  is  beautiful  that  reveals  ideal  per- 
fection, the  perfection  it  reveals  must  be  of  its  own  kind, 
and  in  harmony  with  its  own  character.  A  dog,  if 
represented  as  a  dog,  is  beautiful,  but  if  given  the  neck 
of  a  giraffe  or  the  proboscis  of  an  elephant,  he  becomes 
ridiculous,  because  fantastic  and  unreal.  For  the  same 
reason  the  human  form  with  wings  attached  to  it  is  ac- 
tually grotesque,  although  the  term  angel  is  often  used 
to  designate  the  combination. 

Many  limit  the  beautiful  to  objects  perceivable  by  the 
senses,  but  there  is  no  rational  basis  for  such  a  position. 


The  Fine  Arts  and  Religion  237 


Every  object  is  beautiful  that  reveals  in  some  concrete 
form  ideal  perfection,  and  this  applies,  as  Dr.  Samuel 
Harris  has  so  ably  shown,  to  human  actions  as  well  as 
to  material  objects.  We  as  properly  speak  of  a  beautiful 
character  as  of  a  beautiful  face  or  a  beautiful  sunset. 
We  often  see  manly  fortitude  or  womanly  patience 
exhibited  under  circumstances  so  adverse  that  we  ac- 
tually do  "behold  a  spectacle  w^orthy  of  a  God." 
Beauty  of  spirit  is  of  the  same  quality  as  all  other  beauty, 
and  the  admiration  we  have  for  it  is  not  to  be  distin- 
guished from  any  other  genuine  aesthetic  emotion. 

Equally  valid  is  it  to  speak  of  the  beauty  of  an  argu- 
ment, of  a  military  campaign,  of  a  scheme  for  social 
advancement.  Power  of  any  sort  is  beautiful  when 
properly  regulated,  as  in  a  perfectly  adjusted  watch  or 
locomotive.  Otherwise,  it  is  only  a  source  of  fear  or 
consternation .  Regulated  motions  are  beautiful  motions 
because  they  could,  if  measured,  be  described  with 
mathematical  exactness.  They  thus  represent  the  ideal, 
and  reveal  mind.  Symmetry  is  beautiful,  because 
founded  upon  mathematical  ratios  and  proportions; 
and  the  curve  is  the  line  of  beauty  not  alone,  as  Max 
Miiller  maintained,  because  the  eye  can  trace  a  curved 
line  with  less  fatigue  than  a  straight  one,  but  chiefly 
because  it  deviates  at  every  point  from  a  straight  line  ac- 
cording to  a  law,  thus  manifesting  a  controlling  plan  or 
purpose.  Mathematics,  having  to  do  with  the  properties 
of  space  and  time,  lies  at  the  foundation  of  all  the  sci- 
ences. For  this  reason  beauty  has  well  been  described 
as  the  outshining  of  exact  mathematical  truth.  Noth- 
ing that  is  at  variance  with  mathematics  can  be  beautiful. 
For  no  ideal  could  be  formed  of  such  a  thing,  and  it 
could  represent  no  truth. 

The  more  deeply  we  go  into  the  subject,  the  more 


238  The  sphere  of  Religion 

clearly  we  see  that  all  beauty  in  nature  and  art  is  nothing 
less  than  the  revelation  of  spirit  to  spirit.  The  joy  that 
comes  to  me  from  the  contemplation  of  a  beautiful  ob- 
ject is  primarily  due  to  the  discovery  in  the  object  of 
another  mind  which  is  capable  of  forming  ideals  such 
as  I  am  capable  of  forming,  and  of  expressing  them  in 
such  a  way  that  I  feel  the  throb  of  a  kindred  spirit. 
When  I  survey  the  starry  heavens  and  take  in  even  a 
fraction  of  the  beauty  there  expressed,  the  emotion  of 
delight  arises  within  me  because  I  am  so  made  that  I 
can  form  some  sort  of  an  ideal  of  such  a  combination  of 
objects,  and  enter  into  relationship  with  the  infinite  mind 
that  created  them.  I  have  the  same  experience,  only 
in  a  less  degree,  when  I  stand  before  the  masterpieces 
of  Raphael  and  Michel  Angelo.  The  delight  that  comes 
to  me  arises  from  finding  myself  enveloped,  as  it  were, 
in  their  lofty  thoughts. 

One  of  the  striking  facts  about  all  beautiful  objects 
and  the  joy  that  comes  to  us  from  contact  with  them, 
is  that  instead  of  wishing  to  conceal  them  from  the  sight 
of  others,  we  long  to  have  as  many  as  possible  know  of 
their  existence.  We  want  everybody  to  have  the  same 
delightful  experience  with  them  that  we  have  had.  No 
one  who  is  capable  of  appreciating  a  thing  of  beauty 
wants  to  destroy  it,  but  to  preserve  it  as  a  joy  forever 
to  himself  and  all  his  fellows. 

The  emotions  of  a  scientific  man  when  at  their  climax 
urge  him  to  cry  out  with  Archimedes,  "Eureka,  Eu- 
reka," to  all  within  his  call.  Those  of  the  ethical  man 
keep  him  ever  on  the  alert  for  the  plaudit,  "Well  done, 
good  and  faithful  servant. ' '  But  the  emotions  of  beauty 
hold  their  possessor  transfixed  with  a  quiet  all-absorb- 
ing joy.  The  mission  of  a  man  of  science  is  to  pick 
things  to  pieces  in  order  to  find  out  how  they  are  made. 


The  Fine  Arts  and  Religion  239 


and  he  has  the  joy  of  his  reward.  The  student  of  ethics 
sets  forth  the  goal  of  future  endeavor,  and  points  out 
the  means  of  attaining  it,  and  he  has  his  reward.  But 
he  who  deals  with  the  beautiful  brings  his  works  with 
him,  and  places  them  on  exhibition  before  you.  If  you 
actually  acquaint  yourself  with  them  and  take  in  their 
meaning,  you  commune  with  their  author  as  friend 
communes  with  friend. 

Genuine  beauty  in  all  its  forms,  being  based  upon 
the  recognition  of  ideal  perfection  in  some  concrete  act 
or  object,  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  agreeableness  or 
usefulness,  much  less  with  mere  wonder  or  surprise. 
The  beautiful  is  the  agreeable,  but  the  reverse  is  not 
always  true.  A  bed  or  easy  chair  may  be  very  agree- 
able to  a  weary  man,  but  they  are  not  beautiful  for 
that  reason.  The  same  thing  may  be  said  of  a  hungry 
man's  experience  with  a  big  plate  of  baked  beans  or  a 
hot  mutton  chop.  Sweet  things  are  agreeable  to  some 
persons  and  sour  to  others.  Education  makes  little  if 
any  difference  in  these  matters,  but  it  does  immensely 
affect  one's  appreciation  of  the  beautiful  in  nature  and 
art.  Nearly  all  of  the  beautiful  things  around  us  con- 
stantly escape  our  notice  for  lack  of  a  mind  cultured 
enough  to  detect  them. 

Useful  things  exist  to  serve  some  ulterior  end,  but 
things  of  beauty  are  an  end  in  themselves.  The  cob- 
bler forms  his  shoes  into  this  shape  and  that  in  order 
to  have  somebody  wear  them.  The  baker  makes  his 
bread  and  cakes  in  order  that  somebody  may  devour 
them.  But  Michel  Angelo  carved  his  Moses  out  of  a 
rough  block  of  marble  simply  to  give  perpetual  joy 
and  delight  to  all  beholders  who  have  mental  develop- 
ment enough  to  catch  the  inspiration  of  the  divine 
thought  that  he  endeavored  to  convey. 


2  40  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

Wonder  and  surprise  at  the  unexpected  and  the 
extraordinary  are  perfectly  legitimate  emotions.  Every 
one  has  experienced  them  who  has  witnessed  the  per- 
formances of  a  juggler  or  gazed  at  some  monstrosity  in 
a  dime  museum.  But  they  are  not  emotions  of  the 
beautiful.  They  often  accompany  such  emotions,  be- 
cause our  observation  of  the  beautiful  things  about  us 
is  so  rare  that  we  are  usually  filled  with  surprise  when 
one  is  discovered.  But  if  we  were  thoroughly  attuned 
to  the  thoughts  that  the  universe  is  capable  of  express- 
ing, we  should  never  be  surprised  by  the  unexpected. 
The  freshness  and  eagerness  with  which  we  should 
enjoy  every  new  object  of  beauty  would  not,  however^ 
be  diminished,  but  greatly  enhanced  thereby. 

lycast  of  all  should  the  emotion  arising  from  the  con- 
templation of  the  beautiful  be  confounded  with  mere 
excitement.  Under  certain  conditions  good  dramas 
and  novels  have  a  decidedly  elevating  influence  upon 
our  minds  and  lives.  A  drama  is  essentially  a  play, 
and,  like  the  play  of  children,  is  a  representation  of 
a  life  higher  than  our  own;  and  just  as  children  get 
pleasure  and  enjoyment  by  imagining  themselves  en- 
gaged in  the  pursuits  of  men  and  women,  so  may 
works  of  art  in  the  form  of  a  good  drama  or  novel  give 
us  a  vision  of  life  that  will  greatly  enlarge  our  con- 
ceptions of  heroism,  and  of  beauty  and  grace.  But 
when  these  are  read  or  witnessed  on  the  stage  merely 
for  the  excitement  of  the  moment,  simply  to  have  the 
feelings  wrought  up  to  their  highest  intensity,  the 
mind  loses  all  its  power  for  aesthetic  enjoyment,  and 
soon  becomes  a  hopeless  victim  of  the  intoxication 
habit.  In  such  a  condition  nothing  but  a  blood-and- 
thunder  novel  or  a  bull-fight  will  suffice. 

The  close  relationship  of  all  genuine  aesthetic  emo- 


The  Fine  Arts  and  Religion  241 


tion  to  the  sublime  needs  here  to  be  pointed  out,  and 
cannot  be  too  strongly  emphasized.     In  fact,  sublimity 
is  the  same  as  beauty,  only  it  is  beauty  greatly  ex- 
panded or  enlarged.     When  a  beautiful  scene  unfolds 
itself  beyond  our  capacity  to  comprehend  it  and  leads 
us  up  to  the  infinite,  it  is  something  more  than  grand — 
it  is  sublime.     Any  object,  however  trivial,  may  lead 
us  to  the  subhme,  if  we  are  capable  of  comprehending 
its  significance.    For  every  door,  however  small,  opens 
into  the  Infinite.     A  pebble  on  the  seashore  ordinarily 
attracts  little   attention,   but  if  we   reflect   upon   the 
titanic  forces  that  have  conspired  through  countless 
ages  and  with  ceaseless  persistency  to  produce  it,  we 
cannot  help  being  stirred  in  some  degree  by  the  sub- 
limity of  the  thought.    A  moonlit  night  on  the  Acrop- 
olis is  beautiful,  but  the   thought  of  all   the  starry 
hosts  of  heaven,  arranged  system  upon  system,  with 
their  immense  distances  and  masses,  all  moving  in  ac- 
cord with  a  common  law,  suggests  an  ideal  that  the 
imagination  of  man  finds  it  impossible  to  portray.    All 
one  can  do  is  to  stand  with  head  uncovered  in  the  very 
presence  of  the  Infinite.     When  the  emotion  of  beauty 
rises  into  sublimity,  as  in  such  an  experience  as  this, 
the  mind  cannot  help  being  filled  with  awe  and  rever- 
ence for  a  greatness  that  transcends  all  finite  powers. 

This  exposition  of  the  fundamental  nature  of  beauty 
makes  the  relation  of  the  fine  arts  to  religion  a  most 
vital  one,  and  the  soundness  of  this  view  is  strikingly 
confirmed  by  an  appeal  to  history.  For  art  and  re- 
ligion are  both  as  old  as  civilization  itself,  and  their 
connection  can  be  traced  in  many  countries  and  under 
conditions  most  diverse.  We  always  find  that  they 
spring  up  together,  that  they  develop  together,  and 
that   they   decline   together.     A  brief  survey   of  the 


242  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


origin  and  history  of  the  principal  fine  arts  will  make 
this  evident. 

Architecture  is  not  only  the  most  elementary  of  the 
fine  arts,  but  it  is  also,  so  far  as  relics  go,  much  the 
oldest.  The  only  works  of  man  in  far  distant  ages 
that  have  been  able  to  survive  the  ravages  of  time  are 
the  temples  of  the  gods  and  the  tombs  of  kings,  their 
supposed  ambassadors.  The  ruins  of  these  first  concrete 
expressions  of  the  religious  ideas  and  sentiments  of  the 
people  are  found  in  almost  every  part  of  the  globe. 

Some  of  the  most  important  of  these  ruins  are  in 
the  valley  of  the  Nile.  The  solid  limestone  pyramids 
of  Ghizeh  are  still  among  the  most  colossal  works  of 
man  ;  that  of  Cheops  covering  an  area  of  thirteen  acres 
and  reaching  a  height  of  four  hundred  and  eighty  feet. 
These  royal  shrines  date  as  far  back  as  3500  B.C.,  and 
are  in  marked  contrast  with  the  abodes  of  the  people, 
which  were  probably  but  one  or  two  stories  in  height, 
and  built  of  wood  and  sunburnt  brick.  The  two  great 
architectural  caverns  of  surpassing  magnificence  at  Ip- 
sambul  cut  in  the  solid  rock  are  the  remains  of  temples, 
and  so  are  the  colossal  ruins  at  Karnak.  In  Assyria, 
as  in  Egypt,  the  most  ancient  structures  are  temples, 
some  of  them  dating  back,  according  to  our  best 
scholars,  much  beyond  2000  B.C.  The  first  great  per- 
manent structure  in  Jewish  history  was  Solomon's 
temple,  dating  about  1000  B.C. 

Although  the  beginnings  of  Greek  architecture  are 
veiled  in  obscurity,  its  most  ancient  ruins  now  extant 
are  the  temple  at  Corinth,  erected  about  650  b.  c,  and 
the  temple  at  Selinus,  in  Sicily,  of  the  same  period. 
The  great  classic  models  of  architecture  of  to-day  are 
the  temples  of  Zeus  at  Olympia  and  of  Athene  on  the 
Acropolis,  to  say  nothing  of  the  Parthenon  and  others 


The  Fine  Arts  and  Religion  243 

of  lesser  note  scattered  here  and  there  over  Greece. 
The  Romans  were  not  an  original  people.  In  their 
early  history  they  followed  the  Etruscans,  to  whom 
they  owe  the  arch  and  vault.  Later,  Greek  artists 
took  possession  of  the  field,  and  the  Pantheon  of 
Agrippa  is  the  noblest  of  their  works. 

The  oldest  remains  of  the  fine  arts  in  China  and 
India  are  temples  and  pagodas.  In  the  new  world  the 
oldest  as  well  as  the  best  specimens  of  native  art  are 
the  architectural  ruins  among  the  Mayas  of  Central 
America.  Of  these  Dr.  Brinton,  probably  the  highest 
authority  on  such  matters,  does  not  hesitate  to  say  that 
* '  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  destination  of  most  of 
these  structures  was  for  religious  or  ceremonial  pur- 
poses, and  not  as  dwellings." 

When  the  early  Christians  were  permitted  to  erect 
suitable  places  of  worship  for  themselves,  a  new  archi- 
tecture, based  upon  the  basilica,  sprang  into  being.  It 
is  known  as  the  Byzantine  architecture,  and  it  reached 
its  culmination  about  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century 
in  the  church  at  Constantinople  dedicated  by  Justinian 
to  the  Divine  Wisdom,  now  miscalled  St.  Sophia.  This 
is  "by  many  considered  to  be  internally  the  most 
beautiful  church  ever  erected"  (A.  D.  F.  Hamlin). 
The  famous  St.  Mark's  Cathedral  at  Venice,  modelled 
after  the  Church  of  the  Apostles  at  Constantinople 
long  ago  demolished  by  the  Mohammedans,  is  another 
brilliant  example  of  the  Byzantine  style. 

As  Christianity  spread  through  western  and  northern 
Europe,  another  form  of  architecture  was  developed  to 
meet  its  growing  needs.  Though  varying  in  details 
according  to  locality,  it  is  marked  by  certain  common 
characteristics  to  which  the  name  of  romanesque  is 
now   applied.      The    Lombard  churches  of   northern 


244  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

Italy,  the  magnificent  abbeys  of  the  Rhenish  provinces, 
and  the  cathedrals  at  Durham,  Peterborough,  and  St. 
Albans,  in  England,  are  among  the  best  products  of 
this  style. 

Later,  when  enthusiasm  for  a  still  worthier  expres- 
sion of  the  religious  sentiments  of  the  age  made  its 
appearance,  romanesque  architecture  was  developed 
into  the  gothic.  The  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  cen- 
turies became  the  cathedral  era  par  eminence.  For 
nothing  like  it  has  ever  been  seen  in  history,  or  is  likely 
to  be.  The  works  of  this  period  still  remain  the  master- 
pieces of  modern  architecture, — such  as  the  cathedrals 
of  Amiens,  of  Rouen,  of  Rheims  in  France  ;  of  Milan 
and  Assisi  in  Italy  ;  of  Toledo  and  Seville  in  Spain  ;  of 
Strassburg  and  Cologne  in  Germany  ;  and  of  Lincoln 
and  Salisbury  in  England. 

The  gothic  cathedral  in  its  infinite  diversity  of  de- 
tails was  a  miniatrure  representation  of  the  heaven  of 
the  medieval  imagination.  Even  hobgoblins,  vampires, 
and  other  denizens  of  the  lower  world  were  pressed  into 
service  as  waterspouts  to  show  that  devils  also  must 
contribute,  however  unwillingly,  to  the  glory  of  the 
Most  High.  Many  persons  competent  to  have  an 
opinion  upon  the  subject  would  fully  agree  with  Comte, 
a  great  opponent  of  Christianity,  when  he  says : 
"The  ideas  and  feelings  of  man's  moral  nature  have 
never  found  so  perfect  expression  in  form  as  they  found 
in  the  noble  cathedrals  of  Catholicism."  The  highest 
specimens  of  architecture  in  our  own  day  in  all  lands 
are  not  theatres,  or  public  halls,  or  private  dwellings, 
but  temples  and  churches,  and  it  would  certainly  be  a 
mark  of  great  degeneration  if  such  should  cease  to  be 
the  case  in  the  future. 

When  we  turn  to  sculpture,  we  find  that  it  originated 


The  Fine  Arts  and  Religion  245 


in  the  same  way  as  architecture,  and  has  had  a  similar 
history.  Its  first  office  was  to  embellish  and  adorn  the 
abodes  of  the  gods.  The  earliest  sculpture  known  to  his- 
tory is  perhaps  that  found  in  the  ancient  temples  and 
shrines  of  Egypt,  and  the  clumsy  massive  strength  that 
characterizes  it  is  derived  from  the  sombre  stolidity  of 
the  religion  that  it  attempts  to  represent.  Assyrian 
and  Babylonish  sculpture  has  similar  characteristics 
and  for  the  same  reason.  It  is  formal,  conventional, 
and  symbolic,  lacking  in  subtlety  and  progressive 
development. 

But  the  Greeks  had  a  decidedly  different  conception 
of  their  deities,  and  this  accounts  for  the  fact  that 
their  sculpture  took  on  such  varied  and  elastic  forms. 
They  thought  of  their  gods  as  social  beings  like  them- 
selves, and  lived  on  familiar  terms  with  them.  Kvery- 
w^here  before  their  time  the  gods  were  largely  the 
product  of  superstitious  fears,  and  the  source  of  a 
multitude  of  mahgn  influences  that  must  be  evaded  or 
doggedly  endured.  To  the  Greeks  these  superhuman 
beings  are  most  enjoyable  personalities,  having  all  the 
powers  and  attractions  imaginable  to  man.  Hence 
their  ideals  of  them  were  their  highest  poetic  creations, 
and  they  freely  endeavored  to  depict  them  with  all  pos- 
sible skill  and  grace.  As  another  expresses  it,  "  The 
freedom  of  Homer  in  poetry  became  the  freedom  of 
Phidias  in  sculpture." 

A  Greek  statue  was  not  an  idol  to  be  valued  simply 
for  its  sanctity,  but  a  real  work  of  art  to  be  admired  for 
its  inherent  beauty.  This  is  why  the  Greeks  went  so 
imperceptibly  from  the  divine  to  the  human,  from  the 
gods  of  Olympia  to  the  victors  of  the  Isthmian  games. 
They  understood  and  felt  the  beautiful  so  keenly 
that    wherever   they  found   it,  whether    in   gods,    or 


246  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

men,   or  even   animals,    they   identified  it  with    the 
divine. 

Nor  were  they  so  sensuous  in  their  sculpture  as  those 
that  came  after  them,  or  so  fond  of  the  nude  as  is  com- 
monly supposed.  To  them  Venus  was  not  a  symbol  of 
voluptuousness,  but  the  combined  expression  of  wisdom 
and  love.  Careful  students  tell  us  that  among  them 
"fifty  works  in  drapery  were  found  for  every  nude 
statue."  After  two  thousand  years  they  still  remain 
unrivalled  for  such  marvellous  representations  of  their 
gods  and  goddesses  as  the  Zeiis  and  Pallas  by  Phidias, 
the  Venus  de  Medici^  probably  copied  from  Praxiteles, 
the  Niobe  group  by  Scopas,  the  Farnese  Bull  and  the 
Torso  of  Hercules  by  Apollonius,  not  to  mention  such 
masterpieces  as  the  Venus  de  Milo  and  the  Apollo 
Belvedere. 

The  Romans,  because  they  conceived  of  their  gods 
less  vividly  and  felt  their  influence  less  keenly,  failed 
for  the  most  part  as  sculptors,  and  were  chiefly  depen- 
dent upon  the  Greeks.  Occasionally  an  Kmperor  like 
Hadrian  appeared  who  had  a  genuine  appreciation  of 
sculpture,  and  did  what  he  could  to  cultivate  it ;  but 
every  effort  was  powerless  to  stay  its  general  decline, 
and  by  the  time  of  Constantine  it  had  lost  its  former 
glory. 

Then  for  a  thousand  years,  although  Christianity  had 
gained  control  of  the  civilization  and  power  of  the  world, 
sculpture  remained  quiescent,  because  the  religion  of 
that  period  opposed  everything  that  pertained  to  the 
ancients,  and  made  such  a  distinction  between  the  di- 
vine and  the  human  that  all  art  of  every  kind  was  robbed 
of  its  nobleness  and  power.  Only  scenes  of  suffering,  of 
ascetic  privation,  of  voluntary  torture,  were  regarded  as 
proper  objects  of  religious  contemplation. 


The  Fine  Arts  and  Religion  247 

But  when  these  views  began  to  give  way  to  more 
rational  conceptions  of  the  relation  of  man  to  God  and 
of  this  world  to  the  world  to  come,  the  era  of  cathedral 
building  broke  out  with  unwonted  power,  and  sculpture 
was  again  called  back  into  service.  To  it  was  assigned 
the  work  of  ornamenting  altars  and  pulpits  and  screens, 
and  of  devising  all  sorts  of  figures  for  the  appropriate 
embellishment  of  capitals,  portals,  and  fagades. 

As  the  knowledge  of  ancient  art  increased,  the  church 
called  for  the  highest  qualities  of  workmanship  in  this 
art.  Nicola  Pisano  carved  his  remarkable  pulpits  at 
Pisa  and  Siena  ;  Lorenzo  Ghiberti  wrought  his  famous 
gates  for  the  baptistery  at  Florence  ;  Donatello  produced 
his  Annunciatio7i  in  the  Church  of  Santa  Croce ;  and 
Michel  Angelo,  the  first  pre-eminent  representative  of 
modern  sculpture,  brought  out  his  Moses,  his  David, 
and  his  monuments  to  the  Medici.  Since  Angelo's 
time  the  most  notable  works,  like  those  of  Canova,  for 
example,  have  been  mythological  in  their  character, 
or  monuments  embodying  some  religious  ideal.  Even 
Thorwaldsen  has  been  rightly  called  a  ' '  posthumous 
Greek." 

Sculpture  to-day  gets  its  chief  inspiration  directly  or 
indirectly  from  the  religious  masterpieces  of  the  past, 
and  it  is  not  at  all  likely  that  any  high  art  in  this  direc- 
tion will  appear  in  the  future  that  sets  them  at  naught. 
A  piece  of  sculpture,  even  of  an  animal  or  a  flower,  must 
represent  what  we  believe  a  god  would  think  of  it,  if  it 
is  going  to  satisfy  the  intellect  and  delight  the  heart. 

Although  painting  in  its  developed  form  is  one  of  the 
more  modern  of  the  fine  arts,  yet  like  sculpture  it  first 
arose  in  connection  with  ancient  architecture,  and  for 
many  centuries  it  was  almost  wholly  employed  in  dec- 
orating tombs  and  temples.      The  ancient  Egyptians 


248  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


colored  everything,  even  hard  stones  like  granite  and 
basalt.  The  remains  of  painting  in  Babylonia  and 
Assyria  are  very  scanty,  and  so  they  are  among  the 
Greeks,  but  it  is  not  generally  supposed  that  they  carried 
the  art  to  a  high  degree  of  excellence,  although  some 
glowing  eulogies  of  their  work  have  come  down  to  us 
from  their  contemporaries. 

During  the  decline  of  the  Roman  Empire,  the  early 
Christians  were  the  only  ones  to  manifest  any  vital  in- 
terest in  this  art.  They  began  to  develop  it  in  the 
catacombs,  their  subterranean  places  of  w^orship,  the 
walls  of  which  they  covered  with  rudely  delineated 
images  of  the  fish,  the  anchor,  and  the  cup.  For  several 
centuries  after  the  time  of  Constantine  their  work  in 
mosaics  had  considerable  merit.  Painting  during  the 
Byzantine  Empire  is  chiefly  known  to  us  in  illuminated 
manuscripts. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  painting  on  the  walls  of  churches 
was  common,  but  it  was  mainly  decorative  in  character. 
Not  until  after  the  great  era  of  cathedral  building  of 
the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  did  painting 
reach  a  high  degree  of  perfection .  And  the  chief  thing 
that  brought  it  forward  was  the  great  demand  for  the 
proper  adornment  of  churches,  monasteries,  oratories, 
and  other  buildings  devoted  to  religious  uses.  The 
universal  feeling  was  that  every  altar  must  have  an 
altar-piece,  every  chapel  must  be  embellished  with  illus- 
trations of  the  life  and  miracles  of  the  saint  to  whom  it 
was  dedicated,  every  refectory  must  have  a  picture  of 
the  East  Supper. 

Some  of  the  forerunners  of  this  movement  were 
Cimabue,  Giotto,  and  Fra  Angelico,  but  it  reached  the 
full  tide  of  its  power  in  such  works  as  the  paintings  of 
the  Sistine  Chapel  by  Michel  Angelo,  the  Transfigura- 


The  Fine  Arts  and  Religion  249 

Hon  by  Raphael  in  the  Vatican  palace,  and  Leonardo 
da  Vinci's  Last  Supper  at  Milan. 

The  unrivalled  pre-eminence  of  these  masters  is  due 
not  only  to  the  fact  that  they  possessed  unusual  technical 
skill,  and  exercised  great  freedom  and  boldness  in  the 
formation  of  their  ideals,  but  chiefly  because  they  clung 
tenaciously  to  the  loftiest  subjects  that  could  engage 
their  powers.  The  relations  of  the  human  to  the  divine 
inspired  their  imagination  and  persistently  absorbed 
their  thought.  Murillo  painted  the  Immaculate  Con- 
ception twenty-five  times  before  he  was  willing  per- 
manently to  abandon  the  theme.  Raphael's  Sistine 
Madonna  at  Dresden  is  said  to  be  the  fortieth  in  a  list  of 
forty-eight,  but  who  can  ever  look  upon  this  marvellous 
representation  of  the  Virgin  Mother  and  her  won- 
drous child  without  being  stirred  to  the  depths  of  his 
being  with  the  emotions  of  gratitude  and  awe  ? 

Painting,  like  any  other  art,  can  degenerate.  Nor  is 
it  always  used  to  ennoble  and  inspire.  There  are  acres 
of  canvas  in  the  galleries  of  Europe  that  have  anything 
but  an  uplifting  and  spiritualizing  influence.  Painting 
has  often  been  the  servile  minister  of  superstition  and 
lust,  the  lust  debasing  the  superstition,  and  the  super- 
stition sanctifying  the  lust.  Such  are  nearly  all  the 
representations  of  the  nude  in  art  in  our  day.  For  no 
one  in  modem  society  is  accustomed  to  see  virtue  and 
nobleness  exhibited  in  such  a  state,  or  would  take 
delight  in  beholding  a  member  of  his  family  or  any 
one  he  loved  and  admired  held  up  to  public  gaze  void 
of  appropriate  attire.  What  wonder  that  copies  of  such 
paintings  speedily  find  their  way  to  drinking  saloons 
and  haunts  of  vice  ? 

It  is  the  mission  of  the  painter  not  merely  to  paint, 
but  to  paint  something  that  is  worthy  of  continued  con- 


250  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

templation,  that  inspires  noble  and  lofty  thoughts.  It 
does  not  matter  so  much  what  the  object  painted  is, 
as  how  the  painter  causes  the  beholder  to  regard  it. 
lyandseer  has  taught  the  world  that  animal  life  repre- 
sented in  its  true  spirit  is  far  nobler,  far  more  divine, 
than  higher  life  protrayed  with  only  moderate  power. 
Kvery  visible  scene  and  object  can  be  regarded  approxi- 
mately as  God  regards  it,  and  when  we  see  it  so  depicted 
by  the  artist,  we  commune  with  God  by  sharing  with 
him  one  of  his  thoughts.  Only  thus  can  any  art  be 
brought  to  reveal  its  true  glory,  and  mankind  be  per- 
petually inspired  and  blessed  thereby. 

Music  in  its  most  elementary  form  probably  originated 
in  the  rhythmic  marking  of  time  for  the  dance  at  a  re- 
ligious festival  in  honor  of  some  god  or  goddess.  For 
untold  centuries  it  made  little  or  no  progress,  and  only 
within  the  last  three  or  four  hundred  years  has  it  ac- 
tually become  a  fine  art  and  reached  a  high  degree  of 
development.  All  historical  records  and  still  existing 
monuments  of  antiquity  show  that  architecture,  sculp- 
ture, and  painting  rose  practically  to  the  climax  of 
their  power  long  before  music  attained  any  special 
eminence.  It  remained  an  enigma,  even  to  the  most 
brilliant  periods  of  ancient  civilization  and  intellectual 
culture.  Not  till  near  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages 
did  any  master  mind  appear  to  reveal  its  long  hidden 
beauties  or  discover  and  systematize  its  fundamental 
truths. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  demand  for  music  of  a  high 
order  was  not  called  into  being  until  the  magnificent 
cathedrals  had  been  completed,  and  their  niches  and 
altar-pieces  had  been  properly  adorned.  Then  a  mighty 
longing  arose  for  a  voice  that  could  translate  all  this 
sublimity  into  sound,   and  utter  its  aspirations  in  a 


The  Fine  Arts  and  Religion  251 

manner  befitting  the  place  and  the  new  conditions. 
The  bell-chimes  from  the  tower,  however  sweet  and 
far-reaching  they  might  be,  were  only  a  call  to  prayer. 
Something  else  must  be  found  that  would  give  appro- 
priate expression  to  the  prayer  itself. 

Such  a  medium  was  discovered  in  the  organ.  Con- 
sequently it  was  greatly  enlarged  in  its  proportions  and 
powers.  Soon  vaulted  roof  and  clustered  column  and 
storied  wall,  even  the  very  crypt  itself,  were  resounding 
with  a  symphony  of  sweet  sounds  to  the  glory  of  the 
Almighty.  In  connection  with  the  organ,  all  known 
musical  instruments  were  called  into  requisition,  and 
others  invented  to  swell  the  volume  of  praise  and  adora- 
tion. Every  form  of  musical  composition  was  carried 
to  its  highest  perfection  to  satisfy,  if  possible,  the 
religious  requirements  of  the  age. 

Music  in  the  service  of  religion  has  passed  through 
four  stages  :— i.  The  rhythmic,  like  that  of  the  Indian 
war-dance  of  to-day  ;  2.  The  melodic,  made  up  of  va- 
riations upon  a  single  theme,  like  the  music  of  the 
Oriental  and  Asiatic  nations  of  ancient  and  modern 
times  ;  3..  The  harmonic,  consisting  of  several  co- 
existing melodies,  which  chiefly  characterized  the 
music  of  the  Middle  Ages  ;  and  4.  The  symphonic, 
a  succession  of  harmonies  with  constantly  varying 
themes,  the  music  of  the  most  highly  cultured  nations 
of  our  own  time.  It  is  the  opinion  of  many  that  this 
development  has  already  been  carried  so  far  as  to  leave 
little  room  for  further  discovery  either  in  its  scientific 
principles  or  practical  application,  but  of  the  truthful- 
ness of  this  position  there  is  room  for  doubt. 

Music  is  the  art  of  sensibility  par  excellence.  In 
modern  times  it  has  become  an  instrument  of  over- 
powering significance.     "Music,"   says  Haweis,   "is 


252  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

pre-eminently  the  art  of  the  nineteenth  century,  be- 
cause it  is  in  a  supreme  manner  responsive  to  the 
emotional  wants,  the  mixed  aspirations,  and  the  pas- 
sive self- consciousness  of  the  age"  i^Music  and  Morals, 
p.  i).  It  is  peculiarly  the  disinterested  art,  and  that 
fact  qualifies  it  for  its  high  religious  mission,  making  it 
so  essential  to  the  adequate  expression  of  reverential 
awe,  heartfelt  thanksgiving,  and  genuine  praise. 

At  the  same  time  it  has  to  be  admitted  that  music, 
just  because  it  is  capable  of  traversing  the  entire  key- 
board of  our  desires,  may  be  employed  to  arouse  base 
and  sensual  ambitions  as  well  as  those  that  elevate  and 
inspire.  It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  with  another 
that  "it  can  be  impressed  with  equal  felicity  in  the 
service  of  church  or  tavern."  Nevertheless,  its  great 
masters  have  always  been  those  who  have  used  it  as  a 
powerful,  uplifting  influence,  who  have  evoked  its  aid 
to  elevate  our  thoughts  and  feelings  to  the  Infinite. 
Otherwise,  the  Bachs,  the  Handels,  the  Haydens,  the 
Beethovens,  the  Chopins,  and  the  Brahmses  of  history 
would  not  be  ranked  with  the  Michel  Angelos,  the 
Raphaels,  the  Dantes,  the  Miltons,  and  the  Tennysons 
as  among  the  great  ennobling  forces  of  the  world. 

The  beginnings  of  poetry  in  all  probability  first 
showed  themselves,  as  with  music,  in  connection  with 
the  rhythmic  motions  of  the  religious  dance.  It  is 
almost  inevitable  that  words  uttered  in  accompaniment 
to  the  dance  should  partake  of  its  rhythmic  character. 
So  far  as  all  historic  records  go,  the  oldest  forms  of 
literature  of  any  considerable  extent  in  all  languages 
were  odes  to  the  gods.  At  these  primitive  religious 
festivals  all  the  principal  forms  of  poetry  were  gradually 
developed.  The  epic  poem  recounted  the  doings  of 
the  gods  and  the  exploits  of  heroic  men,  their  chief 


The  Fine  Arts  and  Religion  253 

earthly  representatives.  The  lyric  poem  gave  voice  to 
the  thoughts  and  feelings  that  these  mighty  acts  in- 
spired. The  drama  set  forth  in  vivid  and  concrete 
form  for  the  edification  of  the  beholders  some  particular 
series  of  events  in  which  the  gods  played  the  principal 
roles,  and  thus  displayed  their  superior  wisdom  and 
power. 

It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  out  of  these  humble 
beginnings  have  arisen  all  of  the  great  poetic  composi- 
tions of  the  world.  The  Rig- Veda  consists  chiefly  of 
hymns  to  the  gods,  and  is  the  foundation  upon  which 
the  Mahabharata,  the  great  epic  of  the  Hindus,  is  based. 
The  Iliad  of  Homer  had  a  similar  origin.  It  gathers 
up  all  the  great  features  of  the  polytheistic  faith  of  the 
ancient  Greeks,  and  was  treated  by  them  with  all  the 
reverence  of  Holy  Writ.  Vergil's  ^neid  performed  a 
like  mission  for  the  ancient  Romans.  Milton's  Paradise 
Lost  and  Dante's  Divine  Comedy  grew  up  under  similar 
conditions,  and  still  remain  the  great  standard  epics  of 
modern  times.  No  more  recent  poet  has  felt  equal  to 
the  task  of  surpassing  them,  and,  besides,  the  novel 
has  in  our  day  usurped  their  place  in  the  popular 
demand. 

When  we  turn  to  lyric  poetry,  we  find  nothing  in 
any  language  that  can  compare  with  the  psalms  and 
hymns  of  the  Christian  church  for  awakening  in  man 
profound  emotions  and  arousing  lofty  thoughts.  And 
this  has  been  true  of  the  hymns  of  every  religion  in 
every  age  of  the  world,  and  in  every  stage  of  civiliza- 
tion. The  historic  fact  is  that  both  tragedy  and 
comedy  originated  in  connection  with  the  worship  of 
the  god  Dionysus,  the  frivolity  of  the  latter  being 
the  natural  reaction  from  the  seriousness  of  the  former. 
The  very  term,  tragedy,  comes  from  the  Greek  word 


2  54  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

for  goat,  and  arose  either  from  the  fact  that  a  goat  was 
sacrificed  at  the  festivals  of  this  god,  or  because  the 
actors  who  danced  around  the  altar  chanting  songs  in 
his  honor  partially  clad  themselves  in  the  skins  of  this 
animal.  The  great  tragic  poets  of  the  ancient  world, 
as  ^schylus,  Sophocles,  and  Euripides,  took  such  high 
subjects  as  Prometheus  Bound,  the  punishment  of 
CEdipus,  and  the  sacrifice  of  Iphigenia  for  their  themes. 
For  nothing  less  than  the  doings  of  a  god,  or  some 
other  being  elevated  above  the  level  of  humanity,  could 
stir  their  powers  to  their  best  effort,  or  satisfy  the 
demands  of  those  who  were  to  listen  to  and  criticise 
their  products. 

The  Athenian  tragedy  was  not  a  mere  amusement, 
but  a  serious  religious  function.  Aristotle  says  in  his 
Poetics  that  its  mission  was  to  purify  the  passions  of 
pity  and  fear,  as  he  thought  this  was  the  natural 
reaction  from  seeing  them  carried  to  excessive  indul- 
gence on  the  stage.  It  not  only  originated  in  a  popu- 
lar religious  festival,  but  it  became  the  vehicle  of 
the  deepest  religious  thoughts  and  ideals  of  the  people. 
When  it  ceased  to  fulfil  this  function,  it  lost  its  vital- 
ity, and  disappeared  as  an  important  factor  in  their 
lives. 

No  drama  in  our  own  day  attains  a  high  degree  of 
excellence  that  does  not  appeal  to  that  in  man  which  is 
above  himself,  and  in  some  effective  way  arouse  his 
ambition  to  act  in  a  manner  worthy  of  a  being  possessed 
of  godlike  powers.  Shakespeare,  Goethe,  Schiller, 
Racine,  and  others  who  attained  great  eminence  in 
this  art  in  their  day,  held  undisputed  sway  over  the 
minds  of  men,  because  they  depicted  in  a  masterful 
manner  the  eternal  value  of  truth  and  righteousness, 
the  corner-stones  of  religion,  to  the  welfare  and  happi- 


The  Fine  Arts  mid  Religion  255 


ness  of  man.     And  this  remains  to-d^y  the  secret  of 
their  contmued  supremacy  in  this  field. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  actual  history  of  the  fine  arts 
teaches  us  the  common  lesson  that  they  all  spring  out 
of  man's  powers  to  search  for  ideal  perfection,  and  that 
their  mission  is  to  elevate  him  to  the  divine.    So  long 
as  the  human  soul  yearns  after  the  perfect  and  the  in- 
hmte,  so  long  it  will  seek  to  embody  its  ideals  in  the 
forms  of  art.     The  seriously-minded  Puritan  scowled 
upon  the  beautiful  as  a  lovely  devil,  because  he  thought 
it  the  enemy  of  religion.     He  did  not  see  that  it  is  in 
reality  its  handmaid  and  fi-iend.    In  point  of  fact  there 
IS  no  high  art  without  religion,  and  no  high  develop- 
ment of  religion  without  art.      For  art  is  the  high 
pnest  of  nature,  and  nature  is  the  manifestation  of  the 
divme. 

Art  is  the  concrete  expression  of  some  of  God's 
houghts,  as  they  are  suggested  to  us  in  the  things 
that  are  made.     It  is,  therefore,  indispensable  to  man 
in  his  effort  to  understand  the  meaning  of  the  universe. 
Without  It  he  cannot  see  the  harmony  there  is  in  it  or 
realize  m  any  effective  way  its  rational  purpose.     If  we 
were  fully  attuned  to  the  beauty  that  lies  all  about  us 
revelation  would  be  as  natural  as  breathing      "The 
whole  thought  of  art,"  says  Phillips  Brooks,  "  must  be 
enlarged  and  mellowed,  till  it  develops  a  relation  to 
the  spiritual  and  moral  natures,  as  well  as  the  senses 
ot  mankind." 

We  should  never  speak  of  art  for  art's  sake,  but  ol 
art  for  man's  sake,  to  acquaint  him  with  the  actual 
meaning  of  things,  and  bring  him  into  conscious  and 
joyiul  accord  with  his  Maker. 


CHAPTER  V. 

RELIGION  THE   KEY   TO   HISTORY. 

GuizoT  on  one  of  the  first  pages  of  his  History  of 
Civilization  makes  the  following  remarkable  assertion  : 
"At  all  times,  in  all  countries,  religion  has  assumed  the 
glory  of  having  civilized  the  people."  To  what  extent 
and  in  what  sense  this  is  a  true  statement  it  is  the  pur- 
pose of  this  chapter  to  point  out. 

In  the  first  place  we  need  to  note  that  the  time  has 
gone  by  when  we  can  speak  of  the  history  of  religion  as 
something  distinct  from  general  history.  This  view  has 
always  had  many  advocates.  It  was  held  by  Eusebius, 
the  father  of  church  history.  Augustine  taught  it  in 
his  great  work,  The  City  of  God,  and  the  position  was 
universally  maintained  by  the  churches  of  ancient  and 
medieval  times. 

The  Catholic  churches  of  our  own  day  still  regard  it 
as  the  correct  view.  God,  they  maintain,  has  endowed 
his  people  with  an  infallible  doctrine,  has  placed  over 
them  infallible  leaders,  and  has  established  a  course  of 
action  that  is  to  go  on  unchanged  to  the  end  of  time. 
They  admit,  to  be  sure,  that  the  church  is  not  wholly 
out  of  relation  to  the  rest  of  history,  but  they  insist  that 
its  affairs  are  affected  by  secular  history  only  in  the 
most  casual  and  superficial  way,  agitating  at  times  per- 
haps its  outermost  borders,  but  never  extending  to  its 
centre  or  core. 

Nor  did  the  Protestants  of  the  sixteenth  century  in 
256 


Religion  the  Key  to  History  257 

reality  give  up  this  view.  They  rejected,  it  is  true,  the 
idea  that  the  external  rites  and  government  of  the 
church  are  of  supernatural  origin.  But  the  spiritual 
church,  which  they  made  so  much  of,  the  church  within, 
they  regarded  as  in  a  special  sense  divine.  They  recog- 
nized two  distinct  kinds  of  events  in  the  world,  just  as 
the  ultra-orthodox  do  in  the  Protestant  churches  of  to- 
day, the  miraculous  and  non-miraculous,  the  superna- 
tural and  the  natural,  the  sacred  and  the  profane.  This 
universe  to  them  was  not  what  it  is  to  the  thinkers  of 
to-day,  one  great  and  orderly  universe,  —  what  Sir 
Oliver  I^odge  q^IIs  ' '  a  single  undeviating  law-satu- 
rated cosmos."  They  had  no  inkling  of  the  thought 
that  all  of  the  events  of  history  are  regulated  accord- 
ing to  the  one  principle  of  unity  and  uniformity,  and 
that  there  is  no  possible  ground  for  regarding  them  as 
two-fold. 

*'It  was  in  the  seventeenth  century,"  says  Prof. 
Harnack  in  his  address  at  the  St.  Louis  Exposition  in 
1904,  "that  certain  enlightened  spirits  first  shook  off 
this  wrong  notion.  The  eighteenth  century  further 
developed  the  knowledge  thus  won  ;  in  the  nineteenth 
it  was  partly  obscured  again,  but  in  the  end  it  held  its 
own.  We  can  now  say  :  The  history  of  the  Church  is 
part  and  parcel  of  universal  history,  and  can  be  under- 
stood only  in  connection  with  it."  Our  real  inquiry, 
then,  is,  what  is  this  connection  ?  How  has  the  religious 
element  in  history  affected  the  other  elements,  and  how 
is  it  likely  to  affect  them  in  the  future  ? 

History,  as  the  term  is  used  in  our  day,  is  concerned 
with  all  the  past  doings  and  experiences  of  man.  It 
traces  out  the  rise  and  progress  of  culture  and  civiliza- 
tion in  all  its  various  branches.  But  in  the  narrower 
sense  it  confines  itself  to  the  ongoings  of  nations.  It 
17 


258  The  sphere  of  Religion 

deals  with  their  internal  progress  and  their  mutual  re- 
lations. In  other  words,  it  is  identical  with  political 
history.  It  is  chiefly  in  this  sense  that  the  term  is  used 
here.  For,  as  another  has  well  said,  ' '  on  the  way  in 
which  men  are  formed  into  communities  everything  else 
that  happens  and  all  development  depends. ' '  Our  in- 
quiry then  is,  what  effect  has  religion  had  upon  the 
growth  and  expansion  ot  the  body-politic  in  the  past, 
and  what  have  we  every  reason  to  expect  will  be  its  in- 
fluence in  the  future  ? 

As  far  back  as  we  can  trace  the  internal  development 
of  any  tribe  or  nation,  we  always  find  that  to  renounce 
the  gods  of  the  country  was  equivalent  to  giving  up  all 
allegiance  to  that  country.  In  Babylonia  and  in  Egypt 
it  was  not  thought  possible  for  a  foreigner  to  become  a 
citizen,  but  in  Greece,  where  it  could  sometimes  be  done, 
the  most  important  act  leading  to  it  was  the  adoption 
of  the  worship  of  the  Greek  gods.  In  case  one  country 
subdued  another,  it  was  assumed  that  the  god  of  the 
conquering  country  had  adopted  into  his  family  the  god 
of  the  people  conquered.  This  extension  of  territory  by 
a  nation  did  not,  however,  do  away  with  the  local  wor- 
ship or  affect  the  position  of  the  gods  who  presided  over 
the  destinies  of  other  nations. 

When  the  Assyrians  subjugated  the  kingdom  of  Israel 
and  deported  great  numbers  of  its  inhabitants,  the  col- 
onists who  were  sent  to  take  their  places  did  not  bring 
their  Assyrian  cult  with  them,  but  sought  out  the  pro- 
tection and  care  of  Jahveh  or  Jehovah,  the  god  of  the 
place.  In  all  the  conquests  of  the  Romans,  they  re- 
garded the  religions  of  the  countries  they  conquered  as 
permanent  institutions,  and  did  not  consider  it  as  within 
their  mission  to  disturb  local  ceremonies  and  rites. 

The  first  people  to  refuse  to   adopt  the  religion  of 


Religion  the  Key  to  History  259 

the  country  in  which  they  found  themselves  were  the 
ancient  Hebrews.  When  they  were  deported  to  Baby- 
lonia, many  of  them  still  kept  up  the  worship  of  Jahveh. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  a  new  and  larger  conception 
of  religion, — namely,  that  it  was  superior  to  and  could 
not  be  upset  by  changes  in  locality  or  political  condition. 
The  Jewish  people  were,  to  be  sure,  slow  in  adopting 
this  conception.  It  was  a  great  shock  to  them  when 
told  by  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah  that  Jahveh  could  survive 
the  destruction  of  the  Holy  City  and  would  even  help 
in  its  downfall  if  his  people  continued  in  their  sins.  For 
many  centuries  the  majority  of  the  Hebrews  clung  to 
the  idea  that  a  religious  life  was  inseparably  connected 
with  political  organization.  It  was  not  until  the  coming 
in  of  Christianity  that  the  idea  of  the  universal  character 
of  religion  began  to  prevail. 

But  even  Christianity  could  not  practically  carry  out 
its  theory  that  religion  is  superior  to  all  forms  of  politi- 
cal organization.  When  it  became  the  official  religion 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  the  old  idea  of  the  inseparable 
union  of  religion  with  political  organization  came  vig- 
orously to  the  front,  and  never  in  ancient  times  was  it 
carried  to  greater  extremes  thanduringthe  Middle  Ages. 

The  events  of  the  Protestant  Reformation  did  not 
essentially  change  this  situation.  I^uther  disbelieved 
in  the  political  claims  of  the  church  of  his  day,  as  well 
as  in  the  rehgious  claims  of  monastic  Hfe,  but  in  their 
place  he  strongly  advocated  the  inalienable  and  divine 
right  of  princes  and  kings.  He  regarded  it  as  the  chief 
mission  of  the  civil  power  to  wrest  from  the  papacy  its 
usurped  prerogatives  and  take  them  to  itself.  Both  by 
temper  and  by  circumstances  he  was  a  strong  supporter 
of  the  divine  authority  of  those  who  rule. 

"lyUther,"    says    the    Cambridge    Modern    History 


2  6o  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

(vol.  iv.,  p.  741),  "not  only  did  not  arrest,  lie  actively 
assisted  the  development  of  the  princely  authority  ;  he 
asserted  its  divine  ordination  and  universal  competence ; 
he  proclaimed  the  duty  of  enduring  tyranny  as  God's 
punishment  for  sins  ;  nor  can  it  be  said  that  he  showed 
any  sympathy  for  representative  institutions.  A  com- 
pact territory  governed  by  a  religious  autocrat,  with 
family  life  well  ordered,  was  his  ideal." 

For  two  centuries  after  the  outbreak  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, politics  continued  to  become  more  and  more  theo- 
cratic. The  undue  value  attached  to  the  Old  Testament 
was  chiefly  the  cause  of  it.  Even  Grotius  interpreted 
the  passage  in  the  fifty-first  Psalm :  ' '  Against  thee, 
thee  only,  have  I  sinned,"  as  clear  proof  of  the 
irresponsibility  of  kings. 

The  uprising  of  the  peasants  and  the  temporary  suc- 
cess of  the  Anabaptists  at  Miinster  compelled  the  re- 
formers to  take  the  extreme  view  that  the  church,  as 
a  visibly  organized  body,  was  merely  a  necessary  evil. 
The  state  was  to  them  the  one  divine  institution,  and 
damnation  was  the  penalty  for  attempting  to  resist  it. 
Their  purpose  was  by  no  means  to  minimize  religion 
or  to  make  it  play  a  secondary  part  to  politics.  On  the 
contrary,  their  chief  motive  was  to  exalt  it.  What 
they  desired  to  do  was  to  overthrow  the  existing  form  of 
religion,  and  they  took  the  most  efiScient  way  in  their 
time  of  doing  it. 

They  had  no  thought  of  grounding  the  state  upon 
the  doctrine  of  Hobbes,  that  the  natural  condition  of 
man  is  that  of  incessant  war ;  that  only  a  ' '  leviathan 
power ' '  could  stay  the  clash  of  individual  wills  and 
thus  bring  peace  and  order  out  of  chaos.  Nor  did  they 
agree  with  Machiavelli,  whose  ideal  prince  was  Cesare 
Borgia,  maintaining  himself  by  any  means  in  his  power, 


Religion  the  Key  to  History  261 


regardless  of  the  welfare  of  his  subjects  or  the  principles 
of  morality.  Their  standard  was  that  of  the  theocratic 
kings  of  the  Old  Testament.  And  every  monarch  who 
did  not  carry  out  their  views,  they  denounced  as  doing 
evil  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  not  good.  All  their 
political  doctrines  were  adopted  in  order  to  enlarge 
what  they  considered  to  be  the  true  sphere  of  religion, 
not  to  behttle  its  power. 

Interesting  and  valuable  illustrations  of  how  religion 
lay  at  the  foundation  of  all  the  struggles  of  this  period 
for  the  supremacy  of  the  state  are  found  in  Catholic 
lands,  as  well  as  in  Protestant.  When  the  Doge  of 
Venice,  in  the  early  years  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
started  out  to  arrest  canons  of  the  church  for  flagrant 
immoralities,  to  limit  the  number  of  churches,  to  pass 
laws  restraining  gifts  in  mortmain  and  the  like.  Pope 
Paul  V.  placed  the  country  under  a  ban  and  excom- 
municated the  Doge  and  the  Senate.  This  he  did  on 
the  ground  that  by  the  sacred  doctrine  of  the  "pleni- 
tude of  power  "  of  the  Pope,  priests  were  supreme  over 
princes.  But  the  Venetians  rose  up  in  their  might  and 
vigorously  asserted  "the  natural  right  given  by  God 
to  the  state."  The  result  was  that  Pope  Paul  had 
eventually  to  give  way,  and  from  that  day  to  this  the 
efforts  of  his  successors  to  re-establish  themselves  as 
king  of  kings  and  lord  of  lords  have  been  for  naught. 

Most  of  the  early  reformers  carried  their  doctrine  of 
the  divine  right  of  kings  to  such  an  extreme  that  they 
freely  admitted  not  only  the  right  but  the  duty  of  sov- 
ereigns to  persecute.  The  Religious  Peace  of  Augs- 
burg, made  in  1555,  gave  to  each  prince  the  right  to 
choose  between  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  and  the 
Augsburg  Confession,  and  to  expel  those  of  his  sub- 
jects who  differed  from  him  in  religion.     That  is,  each 


262  The  sphere  of  Religion 

government  was  empowered  to  choose  the  creed  of  its 
subjects,  and  no  one  in  any  matter  was  ever  to  resist  a 
legitimate  monarch.  Nearly  a  hundred  years  elapsed 
before  this  position  was  modified  by  the  regulations 
which  were  finally  adopted  at  the  Peace  of  Westphalia 
in  1648. 

As  time  went  on  there  came  almost  everywhere  to 
be  found  larger  or  smaller  bodies  of  people  who  pro- 
fessed a  form  of  religion  different  from  that  of  their 
sovereign.  Their  leaders  naturally  betook  themselves 
to  the  discussion  of  such  questions  as  the  following  : 
Are  subjects  in  duty  bound  to  obey  their  rulers  when 
their  commands  are  contrary  to  the  laws  of  God? 
Should  a  sovereign  be  resisted  who  is  planning  to 
abrogate  the  laws  of  God  and  demolish  the  church  ? 
Ought  the  rulers  of  adjoining  countries  to  help  the 
subjects  of  another  if  they  are  being  persecuted  for 
their  religion  or  are  being  continually  subjected  to 
vicious  maltreatment  by  a  tyrant  ? 

It  was  also  out  of  discussions  such  as  these  that  the 
doctrine  of  Original  Contract  was  developed,  to  which 
as  a  transition  theory  to  the  position  of  to-day  the 
whole  modern  world  is  indebted  far  more  deeply  than 
is  commonly  supposed.  According  to  this  view  it  was 
maintained  that  there  are  in  every  state  two  contracts ; 
one  God  makes  with  the  king  that  He  will  give  pros- 
perity to  the  nation  over  which  the  King  rules  pro- 
vided it  serves  God  and  does  not  worship  idols.  The 
second  is  between  the  king  and  the  people.  They 
agree  to  submit  to  his  rule  so  long  as  he  gives  them 
a  good  government,  and  only  so  long. 

Before  this  theory  was  developed  out  of  the  religious 
exigencies  of  the  age,  no  right  to  rebel  under  any  con- 
ditions was  recognized.     Sovereigns  were  supposed  to 


Religion  the  Key  to  History  263 


make  any  laws  they  pleased  and  to  be  released  from 
any  duty  to  keep  their  promises.  The  only  recourse 
was  to  prayers  and  tears.  From  this  time  on,  resist- 
ance to  tyrants  began  to  be  regarded  as  a  justifiable 
act,  and  a  series  of  revolutions  was  started  affecting 
two  continents  which  made  possible  the  political  free- 
dom of  our  day.  Thus  it  came  about  that  "religion 
alone  gave  the  leverage  to  liberty,  which  otherwise 
would  have  perished  in  the  development  of  the  central 
power. " 

It  is  easy  for  us  in  our  time  to  see  the  defects  in  this 
theory  of  Original  Contract,  and  we  repudiate  it  as  we 
do  the  theory  of  the  divine  right  of  kings.  Both  these 
theories  were  necessary  when  they  arose,  and  they 
furnish  the  connecting  link  between  the  ideas  of  the 
medieval  and  modern  world.  The  latter  carried  the 
source  of  all  authority  and  power  back  to  God; 
the  former  prepared  the  way  for  the  doctrine  that  God 
has  so  made  this  world  that  all  earthly  sovereignty 
reposes  in  the  people  as  a  body-politic  and  not  in  any 
priest  or  king. 

Only  as  men  have  changed  their  ideas  regarding 
their  fundamental  relations  to  God  and  been  moved  by 
motives  that  appeal  chiefly  to  conscience  have  they 
been  willing  to  make  the  sacrifices  necessary  to  achieve 
freedom  of  religious  belief,  and  it  is  simply  a  fact  of 
history  that  religious  freedom  always  precedes  political 
freedom.  "Religious  liberty,"  says  the  Cambridge 
Modern  History  (vol.  iii.,  p.  769).  *'  is  rightly  described 
as  the  parent  of  political.  ...  It  was  only  the  re- 
ligious earnestness,  the  confessional  conflicts,  and  the 
persecuting  spirit  of  the  sixteenth  century,  that  kept 
alive  poHtical  liberty,  and  saved  it  from  a  collapse  more 
universal  than  that  which  befell  Republican  ideals  at 


264  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

the  beginning  of  the  Roman  Empire.  To  the  spiritual 
intensity  of  the  Reformers  and  the  doctrinal  exclusive- 
ness  of  the  confessions — at  once  the  highest  and  the 
lowest  expressions  of  the  theological  age — we  owe  the 
combination  of  liberty  with  order  which  is  our  most 
cherished  possession  to-day." 

Andrew  D.  White,  so  long  our  distinguished  ambas- 
sador to  Berlin,  in  his  recently  published  Autobiography 
(vol.  ii.,  p.  226)  assigns  the  first  place  among  the 
forces  that  have  contributed  to  the  wonderful  advance 
of  Germany  as  a  nation  within  the  last  fifty  years  to 
"her  religious  inheritance."  This  it  is  that  'Ogives 
the  best  stimulus  and  sustenance  to  the  better  aspira- 
tions of  her  people."  Writing  in  another  chapter 
(vol.  ii.,  p.  439)  about  his  interview  with  Tricoupis, 
the  prime  minister  of  Greece,  he  clearly  approves  of 
Tricoupis' s  assertion  that-  modern  Greece  owes  her 
political  independence  to  religion.  It  was  the  church, 
he  said,  that  kept  alive  the  language  and  nationality  of 
the  people  during  the  long  years  of  Turkish  rule. 

According  to  Guizot,  democracy  was  first  introduced 
into  Europe  by  the  foreign  missionary  Paul.  But  it 
took  many  centuries  to  give  it  concrete  expression  in 
any  effective  way.  Not  until  the  people  of  France 
had  successfully  carried  out  their  repeated  revolutions 
against  arbitrary  monarchial  institutions  backed  up 
by  equally  arbitrary  ecclesiastical  authority,  and  the 
United  States,  stimulated  by  their  example,  had  success- 
fully thrown  off  its  oppressive  yoke,  do  we  have  the 
beginning  of  modern  popular  government.  The  so- 
called  separation  of  church  and  state  that  was  then 
effected  destroyed  the  legal  authority  of  religion,  but 
greatly  increased  its  moral  power. 

Judge  Simeon  E.  Baldwin,  in  his  address  as  President 


Religion  the  Key  to  History  265 

of  the  American  Historical  Association  for  1906,  em- 
phasizes the  fact  that  the  relation  of  reHgion  to  history- 
has  greatly  changed  since  the  overturning  of  the  order 
of  things  that  prevailed  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  *'  But,"  he  adds,  "its  strength  remains  the 
same.  Once  that  strength  was  largely  found  in  the 
power  of  an  established  church,  or  of  a  sentiment  in 
opposition  to  an  established  church.  Now  it  is  coming 
more  from  the  force  of  the  principles  for  which,  at 
bottom,  churches  stand,  in  influencing  public  opinion." 

A  few  of  the  people  in  a  nation,  even  among  the 
leaders,  may  for  a  time  be  indifferent  to  religion,  but 
the  whole  people  never  will  be.  In  our  day  public 
opinion  holds  the  place  of  power ;  and  among  all  the 
forces  that  contribute  to  the  formation  of  public  opinion, 
religion  holds  the  first  place,  as  it  always  has  held  it. 
Any  plan  or  purpose  that  fails  to  receive  the  sanction 
of  the  religious  ideas  of  the  time  will  not  go  on  un- 
opposed and  cannot  permanently  prosper.  A  policy 
that  is  clearly  in  accord  with  the  religious  sentiments 
of  a  people  is  at  once  accepted  and  approved.  Public 
opinion  under  such  conditions  will  find  a  way  to  ex- 
press itself,  which  no  party  machinery  can  successfully 
resist. 

Religion  is  a  large  subject,  and  may  be  viewed  from 
many  different  standpoints.  The  word  signifies  more 
than  can  be  expressed  in  any  single  sentence.  In  a  gen- 
eral way  it  designates  one's  conception  of  what  is  proper 
in  a  superhuman  system  of  things.  Hence  its  meaning 
must  constantly  vary  with  the  changing  knowledge 
and  experiences  of  the  individual.  If  a  person's  intel- 
lectual development  is  meagre  and  his  vision  narrow, 
his  religion  will  be  also.  Two  savages  differ  little  in 
their  religious  notions.    Their  daily  routine  is  almost 


266  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

identically  the  same,  and  their  mental  horizon  scarcely 
reaches  beyond  their  cabins.  The  starry  heavens  is 
not  the  starry  heavens  to  them,  and  the  voice  of  con- 
science receives  only  now  and  then  a  passing  recog- 
nition. Hence  they  usually  regard  the  unseen  beings 
above  them  merely  as  arbitrary,  inconstant  powers, 
whose  favor  is  to  be  obtained  or  ill-will  averted  by  the 
use  of  magical  charms. 

As  knowledge  increases  and  the  experiences  of  men 
enlarge,  some  reaching  out  in  one  direction  and  some 
in  another  of  this  vast  universe,  the  material  that  dif- 
ferent individuals  gather  together  out  of  which  to  con- 
struct their  religious  ideals  varies  enormously,  and 
there  should  always  be  ample  room  made  for  this 
difference.  Strict  agreement  is  out  of  the  question 
except  in  the  savage  state  of  development,  and  the 
more  people  progress  the  greater  will  be  the  variety 
of  their  religious  beliefs.  Any  religious  system  that 
cannot  make  room  for  this  variety  cannot  permanently 
endure. 

All  the  progressive  nations  of  the  world  in  the  past 
have  changed  the  form  of  their  religion  with  changing 
conditions,  and  this  is  what  is  taking  place  among  the 
progressive  nations  of  to-day.  The  fundamental  motive 
of  religion  does  not  change,  nor  does  it  end.  The  re- 
ligious element  in  man  is  an  essential  part  of  his  nature. 
Education  does  not  give  it,  and  education  cannot  take 
it  away.  It  is  universal  and  abiding.  No  man  can 
think  of  himself  as  unrelated  to  something  higher  and 
stronger  than  himself.  He  may  call  this  something 
God  or  Nature,  or  designate  it  by  any  other  term  he 
chooses.  Still  he  cannot  help  giving  his  relation  to  it 
a  dominant  place  in  his  history.  His  views  pro  or 
con  on  the  subject,  whether  we  consider  him  as  an 


Religion  the  Key  to  History  267 

individual  or  as  a  member  of  the  state,  have  always 
vitally  affected  his  conduct  and  always  will. 

"  Convince  the  mass  of  any  people,"  says  Judge 
Baldwin  in  the  address  above  referred  to,  ' '  that  a 
change  of  custom  or  of  law,  or  no  change  of  custom 
or  law  ;  that  a  war  or  no  war  ;  the  maintenance  of  an 
ancient  policy  or  the  substitution  of  another  ;  the  sup- 
port of  an  existing  government  or  its  overthrow,  is 
demanded  by  duty  to  God,  and  you  have  a  motive  of 
action  that  is  likely  to  prove  irresistible." 

It  is  a  universally  observed  fact  that  women  are  far 
more  interested  in  religion  than  men,  and  far  more 
affected  by  its  influence.  The  reason  for  this  is  that 
they  are  by  nature  less  self-centred  and  self-satisfied 
than  men.  They  are  far  more  eager  than  men  are  to 
place  themselves  under  the  protecting  care  of  some 
higher  and  stronger  power.  Even  when  happily  mar- 
ried and  securely  established  in  a  house  of  their  own 
they  tend  far  more  than  men  do  to  look  upon  all  the 
blessings  that  come  to  them  as  gifts  from  Heaven  and 
to  express  their  gratitude  in  the  worship  and  service  of 
their  lives. 

Now  when  the  babe  is  born  into  the  world,  the  first 
person  he  has  consciously  to  do  with  is  his  mother. 
To  her  he  looks  for  support  and  protection,  to  her 
he  gives  his  confidence  and  his  love.  As  he  grows 
into  childhood,  she  is  the  one  who  instructs  him  as  to 
his  relations  to  others  and  to  God.  Women  have  and 
always  will  have  the  early  training  of  the  race,  and 
these  early  religious  impressions  are  never  absolutely 
forgotten.  They  will  at  least  come  to  the  front  in 
moments  of  deepest  feeling  and  supreme  effort. 

As  the  influence  of  women  increases  in  matters  of 
education  and  they  come  to  take  a  larger  interest  in 


2  68  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


public  affairs,  religious  considerations  will  have  a  cor- 
responding increase  in  the  state.  Men  will  pay  more 
heed  to  them  in  their  own  conduct  and  in  their  rela- 
tions to  their  fellows.  They  will  more  strenuously 
favor  what  the  religious  sentiments  of  the  family  ap- 
prove, and  withhold  their  support  from  what  those 
sentiments  condemn. 

The  third  volume  of  the  Cambridge  Modern  History, 
following  the  one  on  the  Reformation,  is  entitled  "  The 
Wars  of  Religion. ' '  But,  as  everybody  must  admit,  the 
wars  of  religion  did  not  by  any  means  end  in  the  seven- 
teenth century.  The  religious  motive  in  war.  Judge 
Baldwin  asserts,  "  is  as  strong  to-day  as  it  was  a  thou- 
sand years  ago. ' '  He  thinks  the  downfall  of  Napoleon 
III.  was  chiefly  due  to  ecclesiastical  intrigues,  and  also 
that  the  war  between  Germany  and  Austria  in  1866 
was  fomented  at  Rome  to  check  the  growth  of  Pro- 
testantism in  Europe.  The  Germans  went  on  from 
victory  to  victory  at  any  cost  because  they  believed 
that  they  were  fighting  for  God  and  fatherland.  The 
American  Civil  War,  perhaps  the  most  destructive  of 
men  an*d  property  in  all  history,  was  fought  to  the  bitter 
end  to  establish  the  divine  rights  of  man. 

Emperor  William  of  Germany  in  an  address  before 
the  naval  recruits  at  Wilhelmshaven  declared  that  the 
defeats  of  the  Russians  in  the  war  with  Japan  were  due 
to  the  deplorable  condition  of  Russian  Christianity.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Japanese  poured  out  their  blood  like 
water  because  they  were  fighting  for  him  whom  they 
regarded  as  their  real  spiritual  leader,  as  well  as  earthly 
sovereign.  As  another  has  well  said,  Admiral  Togo's 
message  to  the  Mikado,  attributing  the  annihilation  of 
the  Russian  fleet  to  his  superhuman  influence,  *'  spoke 
the  real  conviction  of  a  great  man  and  a  great  people. 


Religion  the  Key  to  History  269 


The  religion  of  Islam  rules  the  heart  of  every  Moham- 
medan, regardless  of  his  status  or  locality.  At  the  call 
of  the  Sultan  of  Turkey,  the  Commander  of  the  Faithful, 
every  Moslem  would  rush  to  arms.  In  a  remarkable 
letter  written  to  I,ord  Cromer  not  long  ago  by  one  pur- 
porting to  be  a  representative  of  the  Egyptian  people, 
the  writer  extols  the  wonderful  improvement  in  material 
affairs  wrought  by  the  English  in  Egypt.  But  all  this, 
he  declares,  would  count  for  nothing  if  the  Sultan  should 
once  ask  for  soldiers  to  fight  his  cause. 

''As  men,"  he  says,  "we  do  not  love  the  sons  of 
Osman  ;  the  children  at  the  breast  know  their  words, 
and  that  they  have  trodden  down  the  Egyptians  like  dry 
reeds.  But  as  Moslems  they  are  our  brethren;  the 
Khalif  holds  the  sacred  places  and  the  noble  relics, 
though  the  Khalif  were  hapless  as  Bajazid,  cruel  as 
Murad,  or  mad  as  Ibrahim,  he  is  the  shadow  of  God, 
and  every  Moslem  must  leap  up  at  his  call  as  the  willing 
servant  to  his  master,  though  the  wolf  may  devour  his 
child  while  he  does  his  master's  work.  .  .  .  If  it  be 
war,  be  sure  that  he  who  has  a  sword  will  draw  it,  he 
who  has  a  club  will  strike  with  it.  The  women  will  cry 
from  the  housetops,  '  God  give  victory  to  Islam.'  " 

The  repeated  uprisings  of  the  natives  in  Morocco  in 
the  spring  and  summer  of  1907  alarmed  Europe  not  so 
much  because  of  their  actual  violence  at  the  time,  but 
because  it  was  feared  that  they  were  the  first  signs  of  a 
vast,  volcanic,  religious  crusade  to  exterminate  the  in- 
fidels, started  by  some  ''real"  Mahdi  in  some  oasis  of 
the  desert.  The  New  York  Tribuyie  of  August  4th  of 
that  year  in  an  editorial  on  the  Casablanca  uprising 
that  had  occurred  the  day  before  said  among  other  things: 
"That  the  next  holy  war  whenever  it  comes  will  far 
surpass  in  bitterness  and  range  the  Soudan  hostilities  of 


270  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

Mohammedan  Ahmed,  is  firmly  believed  by  many  stu- 
dents of  Islam.  And  there  are  several  significant  facts 
warranting  this  fear;  above  all  others  the  zeal  with 
which  Mohammedan  leaders  from  Morocco  to  Mindanao 
have  been  striving  to  bring  together  the  thousand  war- 
ring sects  of  Islam  into  one  universal  organization. 
This  movement  has  apparently  gone  far  enough  to 
simplify  considerably  the  task  that  a  would-be  Mahdi 
must  do.  Many  sects  have  hopes  that  some  day  a 
Mahdi,  the  great  successor  of  the  Prophet,  will  come  to 
lead  all  true  believers  in  a  final  triumphant  war  against 
the  infidels  and  to  divide  all  the  world's  wealth  equally 
among  the  faithful.  The  good  efforts  of  Pan-Islamists 
may  thus  readily  be  made  to  help  the  wildest  fanaticism 
and  greed,  if  only  a  scoundrel  clever  enough  and  fana- 
tical enough  arises  to  lead  the  hosts.  Has  such  a  man 
arisen  ?  The  Western  world  is  not  yet  sure.  Some  of 
England's  best  advisers  on  Islamic  affairs  believe  he 
has  already  established  himself  somewhere  in  the  east- 
ern Sahara.  Others  scoff  at  this  conjecture.  But 
everybody  interested  either  in  Islam  or  the  economic 
development  of  North  Africa  hopes  that  French  spies 
will  soon  be  able  to  settle  definitely  the  rumors  of  a 
Mahdi." 

The  English  have  always  had  a  serious  problem  be- 
fore them  in  their  efforts  to  govern  India  and  never  was 
the  problem  more  serious  than  at  present.  The  main 
trouble  is  not  to  be  attributed  to  harsh  and  oppressive 
laws,  for  these  are  often  acknowledged  by  the  natives 
to  be  just  and  beneficial.  The  real  cause  is  the  differ- 
ence in  religion.  Even  in  those  localities  where  there 
has  been  the  most  striking  improvement  in  material 
conditions  the  natives  persistently  stand  aloof  from  the 
officials  of  the  government  and  the  most  strenuous  ef- 


Religion  the  Key  to  History  271 

forts  to  win  their  confidence  and  good-will  are  of  little 
avail. 

China  has  remained  torpid  for  two  thousand  years 
because  of  the  unprogressive  character  of  its  religion. 
It  is  now  being  awakened  out  of  its  slumbers  by  the 
introduction  among  the  people  of  truer  and  saner  relig- 
ious ideals.  When  President  Angell  of  the  University 
of  Michigan  returned  some  years  ago  from  a  govern- 
mental mission  to  that  country,  he  said  in  an  address 
at  Detroit :  ' '  There  is  not  a  foot  of  railroad  in  China 
to-day.  There  were  twelve  miles  laid  but  the  natives 
bought  it  and  tore  it  up  ;  and  the  troops  have  had  to 
protect  the  telegraph  which  was  built  while  I  was  there. 
It  all  comes  of  their  religious  belief.  It  is  not  a  pre- 
judice against  invention ;  it  is  because  a  railroad  or  a 
telegraph  or  a  reaping-machine  interferes  with  their 
most  sacred  religious  beliefs ;  and  you  cannot  move  them 
one  inch  until  their  belief  in  ancestral  worship  and 
Confucianism  is  shattered  to  the  very  base."  Since 
these  words  were  uttered  the  shattering  process  has 
gone  on  at  a  rapid  pace.  Examination  in  the  Confucian 
classics  is  no  longer  required  for  appointment  to  public 
office  among  the  Chinese,  and  this  fact  alone  marks  an 
immense  change  in  their  religious  standards. 

No  intelligent  observer  will  find  it  difficult  to  discover 
the  reason  why  Spain  has  in  recent  years  become  a 
stagnant  nation.  In  these  days  of  religious  enlighten- 
ment and  progress  she  still  imposes  upon  her  rulers  the 
following  coronation  oath,  even  Princess  Ena,  the  niece 
of  King  Edward,  being  obliged  to  subscribe  to  it  before 
her  marriage  to  Alphonso  could  be  solemnized,  and  she 
could  be  recognized  as  his  queen :  "  I,  recognizing  as  true 
the  Catholic  and  apostolic  faith,  do  hereby  publicly  ana- 
thematize every  heresy,  especially  that  to  which  I  have 


272  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

had  the  misfortune  to  belong.  I  agree  with  the  Holy 
Roman  Church,  and  profess  with  mouth  and  heart  my 
belief  in  the  Apostolic  See,  and  my  adhesion  to  that 
faith  which  the  Holy  Roman  Church,  the  evangelical 
and  apostolic  authority,  delivers  to  be  held.  Swearing 
this  by  the  sacred  Homoousion,  or  trinity  of  the  same 
substance,  and  by  the  holy  gospels  of  Christ,  I  do  pro- 
nounce those  worthy  of  eternal  anathema  who  oppose 
this  faith,  with  their  dogmas  and  their  followers.  And 
should  I  myself  at  any  time  presume  to  approve  or  pro- 
claim anything  contrary  hereto,  I  will  subject  myself  to 
the  severity  of  the  canon  law.  So  help  me  God  and 
these  His  Holy  Gospels. ' '  With  such  a  religious  stand- 
ard as  this  for  the  people,  they  cannot  fail  to  retrograde. 
Until  loftier  and  more  truthful  ideals  are  set  before  them 
advancement  is  out  of  the  question. 

It  is  a  striking  fact  that  try  as  hard  as  we  may  we  can 
make  but  little  progress  in  gaining  the  sympathetic  in- 
terest and  trade  of  our  fellow  repubhcs  in  Central  and 
South  America.  There  is  plenty  of  friendly  talk  in- 
dulged in  at  our  Pan-American  Congresses.  Many  pro- 
jects that  would  be  of  great  material  benefit  to  all  parties 
are  loudly  extolled ,  but  few  bring  forth  any  visible  fruit. 
Our  southern  neighbors,  although  they  copy  our  politi- 
cal ideas,  still  continue  to  view  us  with  suspicion.  Race 
differences  do  not  account  for  it,  nor  do  differences  in 
language.  The  plain  truth  is  that  their  church  affilia- 
tions and  ideals  dominate  their  conduct  and  draw  them 
elsewhere. 

Every  historical  student  is  well  aware  of  the  fact 
that  in  the  origin  and  development  of  international 
law,  religion  has  always  exerted  a  leading  influence. 
Sir  R.  Phillimore  describes  international  law  as  based 
upon  "the  consent  of  nations  to  things  which  are 


Religion  the  Key  to  History  273 


naturally,   that   is  by  the  law  of  God,  binding  upon 
them." 

People  were  first  impelled  to  come  together  because 
of  sympathy  or  fellow-feeUng  for  their  kind,  not  be- 
cause they  were  seeking  material  aid  or  economic 
advantage.  Giddings,  in  the  preface  to  a  recent  edition 
of  his  Principles  of  Sociology,  insists  upon  it  ''that 
fellow-feeling  is  a  cause  in  social  phenomena  and  that 
mutual  aid  is  an  effect."  He  extols  Adam  Smith's 
Theory  of  Moral  Senti77ients  as  giving  the  true  histori- 
cal standpoint  from  which  to  view  human  progress 
rather  than  The  Wealth  of  Natio7is. 

In  primitive  times  men  traced  their  descent  from 
their  totemic  gods.  Those  who  had  the  same  totem 
were  brothers.  All  strangers  were  treated  by  these 
groups  as  enemies,  but  as  soon  as  one  of  them  found 
out  that  another  group  had  the  same  religion  as  itself 
it  would  unite  with  it  for  common  worship.  Even  the 
Amphictyonic  Council  among  the  Greeks  had  for  its 
chief  object  the  protection  of  the  temple  at  Delphi.  It 
was  for  this  reason  that  the  deputies  of  the  twelve  tribes 
that  composed  it  bound  themselves  by  oath  that  "  they 
would  not  destroy  any  Amphictyonic  city  nor  cut  off 
its  streams  in  war  or  peace." 

The  ideas  of  the  Christian  religion  have  immensely 
influenced  the  public  law  of  the  world.  From  their 
earliest  introduction  they  have  been  the  chief  cause  of 
its  advancement.  It  vv^as  inevitable  that  the  old  doc- 
trine of  the  natural  antipathy  of  nations  should  begin 
to  totter  when  the  new  idea  that  God  "has  made  of 
one  blood  all  nations  of  men"  once  obtained  a  foot- 
hold. Cabinets  and  camps  were  ahke  affected  by  it. 
The  citizen  of  one  state  began  to  recognize  in  the  citi- 
zen of  another  a  Christian  brother.     Many  of  the  bar- 


18 


2  74  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

barities  that  from  the  earliest  times  had  been  practised 
upon  strangers,  even  the  victims  of  shipwreck  being 
regarded  as  lawful  plunder,  soon  fell  away,  and  others, 
which  were  persisted  in  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the 
church,  were  greatly  mitigated  in  severity  and  number. 

As  an  arbitrator  between  states,  the  Pope  often  ex- 
erted a  mighty  influence  for  good  when  all  other  means 
had  failed.  '*  In  an  age  of  force,"  says  I^awrence  in 
his  Essays  on  Modern  International  Law  (p.  149),  "  he 
introduced  into  the  settlement  of  international  disputes 
principles  of  humanity  and  justice,  and  had  the  Roman 
Curia  always  acted  upon  the  principles  which  it  invari- 
ably proposed,  its  existence  as  a  great  court  of  inter- 
national appeal  would  have  been  an  unmixed  benefit." 
With  all  its  defects,  we  must  still  agree  with  Professor 
Davis  {Outlines  of  Internatioiial  Law,  p.  11)  when  he 
says  that  "unquestionably  the  most  powerful  influence 
that  was  exerted  upon  the  science  of  international  law 
during  its  formative  period  was  that  of  the  Roman 
Church." 

The  institution  of  chivalry  greatly  affected  many 
phases  of  the  laws  of  war.  Its  regulations  at  first  ap- 
plied only  to  the  conduct  of  knights  towards  each 
other,  but  soon  the  beneficial  effects  of  the  institution 
were  seen  in  the  gentler  and  more  humane  treatment 
of  slaves  and  captives  and  in  the  stricter  keeping  of 
faith  with  enemies  and  strangers.  But  chivalry  was 
an  outgrowth  of  the  crusades,  and  the  crusades,  as 
everybody  admits,  were  among  the  most  colossal  relig- 
ious movements  of  all  history.  They  brought  all 
Christendom  far  more  intimately  together  than  could 
possibly  have  been  done  in  any  other  manner.  They 
acquainted  the  people  of  Western  Europe  with  two  civil- 
izations   superior    to  their  own — the  Greek  and   the 


Religion  the  Key  to  History  275 


Saracen— and  thus  laid  the  foundations  for  the  won- 
derful development  of  international  commerce  and 
literature  and  art  that  immediately  followed. 

In  our  day  the  distinction  in  international  law  be- 
tween Christian  and  Mohammedan  is  disappearing  as 
effectually  as  the  ancient  one  between  Greek  and  bar- 
barian. This  is  not  because  religion  has  come  to  have 
less  influence  in  these  matters  than  formerly,  but  be- 
cause the  doctrine  of  the  universal  brotherhood  of  man 
is  being  so  widely  extended  over  the  earth.  Not  that 
which  is  peculiar  to  any  one  religion,  but  that  which 
is  common  to  all  religions  is  coming  to  be  more  and 
more  completely  recognized. 

In  obedience  to  the  religious  impulse  the  representa- 
tives of  the  civilized  nations  of  the  earth  came  together 
at  The  Hague  Peace  Conference  in  1899,  and  for  the 
same  reason  they  reassembled  in  1907.  Indeed  we 
have  the  best  of  authority  for  the  statement  that  the 
very  idea  of  a  Peace  Conference  was  suggested  to  the 
Czar  as  a  means  of  improving  the  lamentable  state  of 
religion  in  his  empire.  If  there  could  be  a  reduction 
of  armaments,  a  portion  of  the  enormous  expenditures 
of  Russia  upon  war  could  be  devoted  to  the  advance- 
ment of  the  church.  The  Conference  itself  from  its 
first  inception  received  the  heartiest  support  from  the 
ministers  of  religion.  It  is  based  on  the  idea  that  uni- 
versal brotherhood  is  the  criterion  of  international 
obligations  ;  that  man  is  a  citizen  not  only  of  his  own 
locality  but  of  the  world  ;  and  that  family  and  race  are 
always  to  be  considered  as  secondary  to  humanity. 

A  better  theology  and  a  truer  view  in  regard  to  the 
Bible  are  affecting  modern  civilization  to  a  far  greater 
extent  than  is  commonly  supposed.  The  burden  of  the 
theology  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  a  future  heaven  and  a 


276  The  sphere  of  Religion 

future  hell.  The  most  intelligent  preachers  of  our  times 
are  concentrating  their  attention  upon  the  present. 
''  One  world  at  a  time  "  is  their  motto.  If  we  do  our 
duty  here  and  now,  the  future  will  take  care  of  itself. 
The  principles  of  a  righteous  life  are  eternal  :  whatever 
is  good  for  this  world  is  good  for  the  next.  Everything 
is  put  in  the  present  tense.  Serve  God  now  and  keep 
his  commandments.     This  is  the  whole  duty  of  man. 

The  theology  of  to-day  is  no  longer  satisfied  with  a 
creed  that  chiefly  attempts  to  set  forth  the  genesis  and 
attributes  of  the  Supreme  Being,  although  it  asserts 
with  Paul  that  "  the  invisible  things  of  him  from  the 
creation  of  the  world  are  clearly  seen,  being  understood 
by  the  things  that  are  made,  even  his  eternal  power 
and  Godhead."  It  seeks  to  determine  what  every 
creature  ought  to  do  in  his  present  environment  to  live 
in  harmony  with  the  eternal  source  of  his  being  and 
happiness.  One  of  the  chief  reasons  why  the  Jew  and 
the  Christian  are  now  living  together  in  greater  peace 
and  good  will  in  most  civilized  lands  than  ever  before 
is  the  fact  that  they  are  both  coming  to  see  that  the 
Old  Testament  and  the  New  Testament  do  not  teach 
antagonistic  doctrines,  but  set  forth  essentially  the 
same  unchanging  faith.  The  Jew  seeks  his  rewards 
and  looks  for  his  punishments  mainly  in  this  present 
life.  So  now  do  most  intelligent  Christians.  The 
Commandments  refer  to  the  world  that  now  is,  and  so 
do  the  Beatitudes  and  the  Lord's  Prayer. 

The  Bible  under  the  influence  of  the  newer  methods 
of  interpretation  has  become  almost  another  book,  but 
never  has  it  affected  thought  and  conduct  so  much 
as  at  present.  It  is  shown  by  statistics  to  be  the  best 
selling  book  in  the  world.  The  Japanese,  the  Russians, 
the  Chinese,  and  the  Hindus  are  buying  it  and  reading 


Religion  the  Key  to  History  277 

it  in  whole  or  in  part  to  the  extent  of  over  a  million 
copies  every  year.  It  has  well  been  said  ''that  no 
single  cause  for  the  spread  of  religious  liberty  and,  by 
consequence,  of  civil  liberty  in  modern  times  has  been 
so  powerful  as  the  circulation  of  the  Bible  in  all 
languages." 

The  demand  for  higher  ethical  standards  in  politics 
and  business  and  social  life  that  is  now  asserting  itself 
in  almost  every  land  is  chiefly  due  to  its  teachings. 
Men  are  coming  to  admit  as  never  before  that  devotion 
to  the  true,  the  beautiful,  and  the  good  in  this  world  is 
the  real  basis  of  a  worthy  and  happy  life ;  that,  after 
all,  character  and  conduct  are  the  things  that  really 
count,  and  that  these  are  the  children  of  faith  in  things 
eternal  and  unseen.  The  spread  of  these  ideas  over 
the  earth  does  not  lessen,  but  greatly  enhances  the  mo- 
tives of  love  to  God  and  regard  for  one's  fellows.  These 
are  the  forces  that  are  directing  as  never  before  the 
course  of  history,  and  will  more  and  more  manifest 
their  power  as  nations  progress.  The  historian  of  to- 
day must  not  only  write  his  history  in  the  religious 
spirit,  but  he  must  see  the  dominating  influences  of 
a  Superhuman  Power  in  the  world's  ongoings,  if  he 
wishes  to  be  true  to  the  facts.  For  every  careful  student 
of  the  course  of  human  affairs  upon  this  planet  must 
agree  with  Weber  in  his  recent  History  of  Philosophy 
(p.  18),  when  he  says,  "  Philosophy,  being  a  late  pro- 
duct of  human  development,  plays  but  a  subordinate 
and  intermittent  part  in  history.  Religion,  on  the 
other  hand,  guides  its  destinies." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

WHAT  re;i.igion  has  to  do  with  education. 

The  word  ' '  education  ' '  comes  from  the  Latin  verb 
educare,  meaning  to  nourish  or  bring  up.  By  common 
agreement  it  is  not  applied  to  vegetables  or  animals, 
but  only  to  persons.  Nor  is  it  to  be  confounded  with 
mere  training.  We  have  a  perfect  right  to  talk  about 
a  well-trained  horse  or  dog  or  pigeon,  but  no  one  of 
them  is  or  can  be  educated  in  the  proper  sense  of  that 
term.  Equally  unfitting  is  it  to  speak  of  an  educated 
savage,  although  by  dint  of  physical  prowess  and  intel- 
lectual cunning  he  may  easily  gain  the  mastery  over 
all  the  other  savages  with  whom  he  comes  in  contact. 

Education  is  possible  only  when  a  being  has  de- 
veloped far  enough  to  possess  a  more  or  less  conscious 
ideal  of  what  the  improvement  of  his  life  requires,  only 
when  his  imagination  can  picture  more  or  less  vaguely 
a  higher  plane  of  existence  than  the  one  he  now  occu- 
pies. As  Prof  S.  S.  Laurie  rightly  says  in  his  excellent 
Historical  Survey  of  Pre-Christian  Edzication  (p.  3),  "  It 
is  only  when  the  ideas  of  bodily  vigor,  of  bravery,  of 
strength,  of  bodily  beauty,  or  personal  morality  become 
desirable  for  themselves,  or  as  the  necessary  conditions 
of  political  life  and  national  conservation,  that  education 
begins." 

Some  sort  of  an  ordered  civilization  must  therefore 
precede  education  ;.  and  since  different  degrees  of  civil- 
ization exist  in  different  communities,  a  great  variety 

278 


What  Religion  has  to  Do  with  Education  279 

of  conceptions  of  education  have  arisen  in  the  course  of 
history  and  still  prevail  over  the  earth.  We  can  hardly 
do  better  for  our  purpose  than  to  take  it  for  granted 
that  no  person  can  be  considered  as  well  educated  who 
has  not  consciously  developed  the  capacity  to  put  him- 
self in  harmony  with  his  environment  and  to  modify  or 
change  that  environment.  The  former  places  him  in 
line  with  the  course  of  history,  and  the  latter  opens  up 
the  way  to  future  progress.  The  environment  of  any 
man  is  made  up  of  two  things,  his  physical  surround- 
ings and  the  sum-total  of  knowledge  and  custom  that 
we  call  the  civilization  of  his  age.  It  is  chiefly  with 
the  latter  that  education  has  to  do. 

Now  it  is  admitted  by  all  authorities  that  the  begin- 
nings of  civilization  were  originated  by  religion.  * '  Re- 
ligion," says  Professor  Jastrow  in  his  Study  of  Religion 
(p.  310),  ".  .  .  is  the  stimulus  which  produces  the 
earliest  definite  manifestations  of  culture.  It  gives 
birth  to  the  arts  and  sciences,  and  not  only  encourages 
all  manner  of  intellectual  pursuits,  but  presides  over 
them." 

Medicine,  although  the  most  materialistic  of  all  the 
professions,  had  its  origin  with  the  priests.  To  them 
the  people  came  for  relief  from  their  ills,  because  they 
were  supposed  to  know  far  better  than  others  of  their 
number  how  to  control  the  evil  spirits,  who  were 
universally  regarded  in  early  times  as  the  cause  of  all 
bodily  troubles. 

It  is  also  true  that  the  sanctuary  was  the  oldest 
tribunal  of  law.  When  a  dispute  arose,  it  was  the 
priest  who  undertook  to  determine  what  was  the  will 
of  the  local  deity  in  regard  to  it,  and  his  decision  was 
taken  as  the  ultimate  authority  in  the  case. 

Astronomy  came  into  being  because  of  the  belief 


28o  The  sphere  of  Religion 

current  in  that  age  that  the  planets  and  stars  were 
associated  with  the  actions  of  certain  deities.  It  was 
therefore  considered  of  great  importance  carefully  to 
watch  their  movements,  in  order  to  ascertain  what  of 
good  or  ill  the  gods  had  in  store  for  mortals. 

lyong  before  the  thought  arose  of  making  one's 
dwelling  anything  more  than  a  shelter  from  the  in- 
clemencies of  the  weather,  architecture  had  reached 
a  high  degree  of  development.  For  temples  had  to  be 
erected  for  the  abodes  of  the  gods.  Then  came  paint- 
ing and  sculpture  to  adorn  and  beautify  these  abodes. 
Music  was  developed  in  order  to  entertain  the  deities, 
and  odes  and  hymns  were  composed  to  sound  forth 
their  praises.  Philosophy  arose  out  of  theology,  and 
at  the  outset  included  all  the  natural  sciences  known 
in  that  day.  In  short,  everything  that  pertained  to 
the  civilization  of  the  time  had  religion  for  its  source. 

It  is  no  accident,  therefore,  that  in  the  earliest  ages 
the  entire  matter  of  education  and  culture  was  in 
the  charge  of  priests.  In  Egypt,  they  constituted  the 
highest  order  in  the  state,  and  along  with  the  monarch 
governed  the  country.  All  the  learning  of  the  Egyp- 
tians was  in  their  hands.  They  instructed  the  mem- 
bers of  the  royal  family,  and,  it  is  to  be  presumed,  the 
children  of  court  dignitaries.  Great  colleges  for  the 
education  of  priests  were  situated  in  the  principal  cities, 
such  as  Memphis,  Thebes,  and  Heliopolis,  and  in  them 
the  highest  learning  of  the  land  was  to  be  found. 

Among  the  Chaldseo-Babylonians,  the  priests  not 
only  conserved  and  developed  the  religious  system 
which  they  had  inherited  from  the  Accadians,  but  they 
also  handed  down  the  traditions  of  the  race  and  em- 
bodied in  an  oral  and  written  literature  its  highest 
poetical  conceptions  and  its  philosophy  of  life. 


What  Religion  has  to  Do  with  Education  281 

The  Assyrians  rivalled  the  Babylonians  in  the  mag- 
nificence of  their  temples  and  palaces  and  the  art  with 
which  they  were  adorned.  Technical  and  military 
skill  was  undoubtedly  developed  among  them  to  a 
high  degree  of  excellence  and  was  widely  diffused. 
But  education  of  the  highest  kind,  as  with  the  Baby- 
lonians, was  in  the  keeping  of  the  priests.  Whatever 
education  the  youth  of  the  land  received  was  due  to 
them. 

By  far  the  most  famous  of  the  Semitic  races  were  the 
H  ebrews.  Moses  was  the  central  figure  in  their  history 
and  he  was  one  of  the  greatest  schoolmasters  of  all  time. 
He  claimed  to  be  the  mouthpiece  of  Jahveh  and  his 
one  aim  was  to  make  him  the  centre  of  the  spiritual  and 
political  life  of  the  people.  Civil  law  and  social  practice 
were  derived  from  the  law  of  God.  As  another  remarks  : 
"The  banal  distinction  between  sacred  and  secular, 
from  which  modem  Europe  suffers,  did  not  exist."  It 
was  this  close  connection  between  religion,  morality, 
and  civil  polity  that  gave  the  Jewish  priesthood  an  in- 
fluence unequalled  in  any  other  land. 

With  the  Israelites,  all  education  was  religious  both 
in  its  highest  and  lowest  forms.  The  fear  of  the  Lord 
was  not  only  the  beginning,  but  the  end  of  all  wisdom. 
All  the  literature  of  the  country  centred  around  Jahveh. 
Priests  and  prophets  and  scribes  devoted  their  energies 
to  the  preservation  and  application  of  his  commands  and 
the  psalmists  gave  their  strength  to  sounding  forth  his 
praises. 

The  Jewish  conception  of  the  relation  of  religion  to 
education  is  well  summed  up  in  the  injunction :  ' '  Thou 
Shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thine  heart,  and 
with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  might.  And  these 
words,  which  I  command  thee  this  day,  shall  be  in  thine 


282  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

heart :  and  thou  shalt  teach  them  diligently  unto  thy 
children,  and  shalt  talk  of  them  when  thou  sittest  in 
thine  house,  and  when  thou  walkest  by  the  way,  and 
when  thou  liest  down,  and  when  thou  risest  up  " 
(Deut.  vi.  5-7).  This  requirement  made  some  degree 
of  education  imperative  and  has  enormously  affected 
not  only  the  history  of  the  Jewish  people,  but  of  the 
world. 

Learning  among  the  Hindus  was  almost  exclusively 
in  the  hands  of  the  Brahmans.  Under  certain  conditions 
they  explained  portions  of  it  to  the  two  next  lower  castes. 
For  they  alone  were  considered  capable  in  any  degree 
of  comprehending  its  meaning.  Manu's  Book  of  Laws 
thus  expresses  the  end  of  all  education  :  "  To  learn  and 
to  understand  the  Vedas,  to  practise  pious  mortifica- 
tions, to  acquire  divine  knowledge  of  the  law  and  of 
philosophy,  to  treat  with  veneration  his  natural  and 
spiritual  father,  these  are  the  chief  duties  by  means  of 
which  endless  felicity  is  attained."  In  the  same  Book 
of  Laws,  we  also  read  :  "  A  female  child,  a  young  girl, 
a  wife,  shall  never  do  anything  according  to  their  own 
will,  not  even  in  their  own  house.  While  a  child  she 
shall  depend  upon  her  father ;  during  her  youth 
on  her  husband;  and,  when  a  widow,  on  her  sons" 
(v.,  147).  The  religion  of  the  country  made  it  almost 
the  sole  mission  of  women  to  bear  children  and  serve 
their  husbands.  Hence  women,  among  the  Hindus, 
were  excluded  from  all  education,  except  in  the  case  of 
dancing  girls  who  were  taught  to  read  and  write  and 
sing  in  order  to  serve  in  the  temples  as  * '  maidens  of 
the  god." 

The  Magi  among  the  Persians  possessed  all  the  sci- 
ence and  philosophy  of  the  nation  ;  but  as  the  religion 
they  represented  was  a  religion  of  light  and  truth,  as 


What  Religion  has  to  Do  with  Education  283 

opposed  to  darkness  and  error,  they  taught  the  people 
courage  and  truth -speaking  and  purity  of  life.  Accord- 
ing to  Herodotus,  they  thought  that  the  most  dis- 
graceful thing  in  the  world  was  to  tell  a  lie ;  and  that 
the  next  worst  thing  was  to  owe  a  debt,  because, 
among  other  reasons,  the  debtor  is  obliged  to  tell  lies. 
The  Persians  regarded  themselves  as  colaborers  with 
Armazd,  the  lord  of  life  and  light,  and  were  to  fight 
with  him  for  the  establishment  of  his  Kingdom  of  I^ight. 
Hence  they  did  what  they  could  to  educate  their  chil- 
dren in  personal  courage  and  justice  and  truth.  They 
made  these  virtues  the  sum  and  substance  of  education, 
because  they  had  developed  in  their  religious  ideas  far 
enough  to  regard  them  as  the  chief  attributes  of  God. 

Among  the  Chinese,  the  Greeks,  and  the  Romans, 
there  was  no  separately  organized  priesthood,  but  its 
place  was  taken  by  a  political  aristocracy.  The  state 
was  the  church,  and  embodied  in  its  scheme  of  civil 
affairs  the  moral  and  religious  guidance  of  the  people. 
Nor  do  we  find  in  these  cases  any  real  exception  to  the 
rule  that  in  ancient  times  the  educational  leaders  of  a 
nation  were  identical  with  those  of  the  church. 

Confucianism  has  for  many  centuries  been  the  state 
religion  of  the  Chinese  and  their  whole  life  is  still  for 
the  most  part  controlled  by  it.  The  idea  of  a  great 
world-order  established  and  maintained  by  a  Supreme 
Principle  of  Mind  is  the  foundation  of  all  their  thought. 
And  this  world-order  first  found  expression  among  them 
in  their  family  life.  This  is  the  centre  of  the  religious 
and  poHtical  activity  of  the  people.  The  mission  of  the 
emperor,  who  is  the  son  of  heaven  and  father  of  his 
people,  has  always  been  to  order  and  govern  all  human 
institutions  by  laws  bearing  upon  every  department  of 
life.    Antiquity  is,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Chinese,  the 


284  The  sphere  of  Religion 

infallible  guide  to  truth.  While  they  have  often  shown 
great  intellectual  ability  and  acuteness,  a  superstitious 
regard  for  the  past  has  crushed  out  all  originaHty  from 
their  systems  of  education.  Only  that  which  has  been 
approved  by  their  ancestors  is  regarded  as  worthy  of 
reverence  and  thought. 

Some  writers  have  asserted  that  the  Greeks,  whom 
all  admit  to  have  been  the  most  intellectual  and  best 
educated  people  of  their  age,  were  not  deeply  religious, 
but  the  fact  is  just  the  opposite.  Every  Greek  child 
was  early  taught  to  pay  homage  to  the  conical  stone 
of  Apollo  that  stood  in  front  of  his  dwelling,  and  an 
altar  to  Zeus  occupied  the  chief  place  in  every  court- 
yard. A  libation  to  Hestia  was  poured  out  on  the  hearth 
not  only  at  the  beginning  of  every  feast,  but  of  the  or- 
dinary meal.  "  Kitchen,  storerooms,  and  bedchamber 
had  their  respective  divinities.  From  birth  to  death  there 
were  few  events  in  the  life  of  a  Greek  when  the  gods 
were  not  remembered . ' '  They  believed  that  everything 
that  man  possesses  was  the  gift  of  the  gods  and  they 
were  constantly  approaching  them  with  offerings  and 
.  prayers  to  win  their  favor  for  the  future  or  to  express 
their  thankfulness  for  the  past. 

This  was  especially  true  of  them  as  a  nation.  They 
commemorated  their  victory  over  the  Persians  by  erect- 
ing the  colossal  bronze  statue  of  Athene  on  the  Acrop- 
olis and  a  group  of  lesser  deities  at  Delphi.  Later  as  they 
came  into  possession  of  more  w^ealth  they  constructed 
the  Parthenon  and  Propylaea  at  Athens  and  numerous 
temples  in  other  cities,  whose  remains  are  to  this  day 
the  wonder  and  the  joy  of  mankind.  Throughout 
all  their  history  their  religious  festivals  were  celebrated 
with  devout  regularity  and  with  becoming  dignity  and 
pomp. 


What  Religion  has  to  Do  with  Education  285 

It  is  true  that  they  did  not  make  much  of  priests,  al- 
though they  had  them  at  such  religious  centres  as  Eleusis 
and  Delphi ;  for  they  did  not  regard  them  as  having  any 
peculiar  knowledge  concerning  the  will  of  the  gods  or 
any  special  control  over  their  conduct.  Nor  did  they 
feel  the  need  of  any  mediators  between  themselves  and 
their  gods,  or  of  the  exact  performance  of  a  complicated 
system  of  rites.  The  absence  among  them  of  any  belief 
in  a  revelation  committed  to  the  care  of  a  chosen  few  also 
largely  accounts  for  this  fact.  They  all  thought  of  the 
gods  as  everywhere  present  and  deeply  concerned  in 
everything  that  pertained  to  their  private  and  public  life. 
Fear  was  not  dominant  in  their  natures  and  their  rela- 
tion to  their  gods  was  a  pleasant  and  friendly  one.  They 
were  too  light-hearted  and  optimistic  to  dwell  much  upon 
the  mysterious  and  awful  in  the  world. 

Their  gods  were  concrete  individualities  who  em- 
bodied in  themselves  the  highest  ideals  of  human 
thought.  They  saw  in  the  causes  of  all  being  and  all 
change,  moving  forces  similar  to  those  that  operated 
in  their  own  breasts.  Their  worship  was  in  truth  the 
worship  of  humanity.  "  To  the  Hellenic  conception 
everything  beautiful  was  holy  :  everything  pleasant  to 
man  was  acceptable  to  the  gods."  Hence  it  is  that 
their  religious  sentiments  naturally  expressed  them- 
selves in  architecture  and  the  plastic  arts.  Pericles 
knew,  as  Von  Ranke  points  out,  that  when  he  was 
promoting  the  fine  arts  among  the  Athenians  he  was 
strengthening  their  religion. 

The  Greek  religion  was  the  religion  of  the  beautiful 
and  they  saw  this  beauty  in  everything  around  them. 
Nothing  in  their  eyes  was  common  or  unclean.  They 
investigated  everything  in  order  to  find  out  its  ideal 
relations  ;  for  in  that  way  only  could  they  satisfy  their 


286  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


passion  for  knowing  things  as  the  gods  knew  them, 
which  to  them  was  the  same  thing  as  saying,  as  they 
really  are.  For  this  reason  we  owe  to  them  not  only 
the  arts  of  architecture,  sculpture,  and  painting,  and 
the  finest  forms  of  poetry,  but  the  beginnings  of  science 
and  history  and  the  extraordinary  elaboration  of  logic 
and  philosophy. 

All  their  education,  both  physical  and  mental,  was 
primarily  undertaken  for  the  purpose  of  raising  man  to 
their  conception  of  the  divine.  The  body  was  subjected 
to  the  most  vigorous  training  in  order  that  it  might  be 
made  the  easy  vehicle  of  a  free  and  happy  spirit.  The 
great  games  on  the  plains  of  Olympia,  to  which  all 
Greece  annually  flocked,  were  always  accompanied 
by  services  in  the  temple  and  had  the  special  favor 
of  the  gods.  The  greatest  reward  bestowed  upon  the 
victor  was  to  elevate  him  to  the  rank  of  the  gods. 

While  the  prime  object  of  human  existence,  as  Aris- 
totle expressed  it,  was  to  "live  happily  and  beauti- 
fully" like  a  god,  the  secondary  object  was  to  fit 
oneself  for  his  place  in  the  state.  For  only  thus  could 
one  come  to  the  full  and  free  development  of  his  powers. 
The  state  to  an  Athenian  was  not  something  arbitrarily 
imposed  upon  him  from  without.  It  got  its  authority 
from  himself.  Its  laws  were  a  counterpart  of  his  own 
life.  Hence  his  idea  was  that  you  must  have  the  most 
highly  developed  manhood  in  order  to  have  the  best 
citizen.  This  was  an  ideal  much  higher  than  any 
that  had  preceded  it,  as  it  aimed  at  the  harmonious 
development  of  the  whole  man,  both  of  mind  and  body. 

Laurie  is  right  in  maintaining  in  his  discussion  of 
education  among  the  Greeks  that  "  the  civic  idea  was 
dominant,  just  as  in  China  the  family  idea  was  and  is 
dominant,  and  in  India  the  caste  idea,  in  Egypt  the 


What  Religion  has  to  Do  with  Education  287 

class  idea,  among  the  Jews  the  theological  idea,  and 
among  the  Persians  the  virile  military  idea."  But,  as 
he  himself  elsewhere  holds,  each  of  these  ideas  is  to  be 
traced  back  to  a  preconceived  religious  idea  as  to  what 
kind  of  an  education  would  be  most  acceptable  to  the 
gods. 

It  may  be  well  here  to  note  that  although  the  Greeks 
had  very  lofty  ideas  in  regard  to  education,  like  all 
other  ancient  nations  they  made  no  attempt  to  apply 
them  to  all  classes.  Women  among  the  Athenians  had 
no  school  education.  The  little  they  knew  about  the 
world  in  which  they  lived  they  learned  at  home.  Ex- 
cept on  great  festival  occasions  they  and  their  children 
were  generally  confined  to  the  upper  floor  of  their 
dwellings.  So  far  from  having  any  athletic  develop- 
ment the}'-  were  for  the  most  part  slender  and  pale. 
Propriety  of  conduct,  domestic  thrift,  and  the  harmon- 
ious management  of  the  household  were  considered 
their  finest  qualities.  They  took  no  part  in  social  en- 
tertainments. When  a  husband  had  guests  at  dinner, 
the  wife  was  not  allowed  to  be  present,  although  it  was 
her  duty  carefully  to  prepare  the  feast. 

And  then,  too,  we  must  remember  that  slavery  was 
everywhere  dominant.  In  Attica,  at  its  best  period, 
four  out  of  five  of  its  population  belonged  to  that  class. 

One  of  the  chief  differences  between  the  religion  of  a 
Roman  and  that  of  a  Greek  is  seen  in  the  fact  that 
when  the  former  made  a  sacrifice  he  covered  his  head 
with  a  veil,  while  the  latter  raised  his  hands  and  eyes 
toward  the  heavens.  The  very  word  "  religion,"  which 
has  come  down  to  us  from  the  ancient  Romans,  shows 
us  with  what  awe  they  approached  the  Unseen.  To 
them  religion  was  not  a  matter  of  joyous  friendliness, 
but  a  great  and  serious  reality.     As  Ihne  puts  it  i^His- 


2  88  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

tory  of  Rome,  vol.  iv.,  p.  3),  **  religion  with  the  Romans 
was  not  a  matter  of  feeling  or  speculation,  but  of  law." 
Their  supreme  deity  was  Jupiter  Optimus  Maximus, 
whom  thej'  regarded  not  alone  as  the  father  of  men  and 
the  source  of  every  blessing,  but  pre-eminently  the  di- 
vine personification  of  the  Roman  state.  This  deep 
religious  feeling  was  exhibited  all  through  their  history 
and  they  always  made  a  complete  identification  of  the 
church  with  the  state.  It  is  said  of  the  great  Scipio 
Africanus  that  he  went  daily  into  the  temple  of  Jupiter 
to  pray,  and  that  he  ascribed  all  his  triumphs  to  the 
protecting  care  of  that  deity. 

The  unit  of  the  Roman  state  was  the  family,  and  the 
centre  of  the  family  life  was  the  worship  of  the  house- 
hold gods.  The  Penates  watched  over  the  hearth  and 
the  Lares  were  the  spirits  of  departed  ancestors,  who 
were  regarded  as  still  concerned  with  all  that  related 
to  the  welfare  of  their  descendants.  In  the  atrium  of 
the  house,  beside  the  household  hearth,  usually  stood 
between  two  Penates  the  chief  Lar  clad  in  a  toga.  Be- 
fore this  shrine  a  prayer  was  offered  every  morning 
and  libations  were  poured  out  at  every  meal-time. 
Three  times  a  month  and  on  all  festal  occasions 
sacrifices  were  made,  the  father  acting  as  a  priest. 

The  Roman  clans  were  but  enlarged  families,  each 
clan  having  a  common  altar  and  making  common  sac- 
rifices ;  and  the  religion  of  the  Roman  state  was  simply 
the  religion  of  the  clans,  with  a  common  hearth,  where 
the  Vestal  Virgins  forever  guarded  the  eternal  fire. 

*'  So  closely,"  saj^s  a  high  authority  on  the  subject, 
*'  was  the  Roman  life  bound  up  with  religion  that  we 
have  found  it  impossible  to  speak  of  the  one  without 
the  other.  The  Roman  state  ultimately  rests  on  Jupiter 
as  law  and  order  and  object  of  supreme  reverence,  on 


What  Religion  has  to  Do  with  Education  289 

Mars  as  the  strong  arm  for  defence  and  offence,  and 
on  Vesta  as  symbolizing  the  sacredness  and  purity  of 
the  home." 

In  regarding  Jupiter  as  the  head  of  the  state,  the 
Romans  came  instinctively  to  recognize  law  as  the 
basis  of  true  liberty,  and  they  did  not  seek  it  in 
the  arbitrary  decisions  of  individuals.  They  thus 
made  themselves  an  extending  and  long-enduring 
power,  and  laid  the  foundations  of  a  jurisprudence  that 
became  a  mighty  factor  in  the  subsequent  history  of 
the  world.  In  the  divine  law  they  saw  the  elder  sister 
of  civil  law,  and  the  mould  or  pattern  in  which  it  was 
to  be  cast.  The  characteristics  of  the  one  became  the 
characteristics  of  the  other.  In  both  we  find  the  same 
severity,  the  same  precision,  the  same  inflexible  will, 
and  the  same  aversion  to  modification  or  change. 

In  these  elements  of  their  religion  and,  what  amounts 
to  the  same  thing,  their  political  life,  we  find  the  key 
to  their  conception  of  education.  Their  youth  were 
instructed  in  such  things  as  would  help  them  bear 
the  burdens  of  the  state.  They  did  not  devote  their 
energies  to  music  and  gymnastics,  as  the  Greeks  did, 
in  order  that  they  might  develop  a  beautiful  mind  in  a 
beautiful  body.  But,  in  the  words  of  Cicero,  ''the 
children  of  the  Romans,  on  the  other  hand,  are  brought 
up  that  they  may  one  day  be  able  to  be  of  service  to 
the  fatherland,  and  one  must  accordingly  instruct  them 
in  the  customs  of  the  state  and  in  the  institutions  of 
their  ancestors."  Mere  culture  and  harmonious  de- 
velopment was  not  the  end  they  had  in  view.  They 
gave  little  time  and  strength  to  poetry  and  science  and 
art  for  that  reason. 

What  they  sought  was  virtics,   manly  vigor.     The 
studies  they  pursued  were  mainly  intended  to  make 
19 


290  The  Sphere  of  Religio7i 

them  strong  for  political  service.  For  the  most  part 
the  education  a  boy  received  in  the  palmiest  days  of 
the  Roman  people  was  obtained  through  the  moral  and 
religious  influences  of  his  own  home  in  constant  and 
free  intercourse  with  his  father  and  mother.  And  he 
was  considered  to  have  reached  the  highest  degree  of 
wisdom  of  which  he  was  capable  if  he  had  developed 
in  himself  a  deep  sense  of  duty  to  law,  to  paternal 
authority,  and  to  the  vState. 

With  the  lawless  indulgence  of  almost  every  passion 
and  the  utter  disregard  for  the  demands  of  ethics  and 
religion  that  attended  the  decline  and  fall  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  this  standard  of  education  vanished  from  sight, 
and  mere  dilettanteism  and  glibness  of  tongue  were 
most  cultivated  and  admired.  The  rhetoricians  were 
dominant  in  this  period,  and  they  made  it  their  chief 
aim  to  develop  in  their  pupils  the  ability  to  speak  with 
equal  effectiveness  on  either  side  of  any  proposition, 
caring  little  or  nothing  for  the  quality  of  the  thought. 
"This  power  of  using  words,"  says  Professor  Dill, 
when  describing  this  era,  ' '  for  mere  pleasurable  effect 
on  the  most  trivial  or  the  most  extravagantly  absurd 
themes  was  for  many  ages,  in  both  west  and  east, 
esteemed  the  highest  proof  of  talent  and  cultivation." 

This  state  of  things  continued  until  the  ideas  of  the 
Christian  religion  began  to  have  some  effect  upon  the 
thought  of  the  time,  and  the  rise  and  fall  of  education 
ever  since  have  chiefly  depended  upon  the  way  they 
have  been  treated.  The  two  leading  ideas  of  this  re- 
ligion are  that  God  is  not  only  a  god  of  law,  but  of 
love,  and  that  every  man  is  a  child  of  God,  capable 
of  being  his  companion  and  friend.  The  best  the 
pagan  world  had  to  offer  for  the  improvement  of  so- 
ciety was  an  appeal  to  the  intellect.     Education  was 


What  Religion  has  to  Do  with  Education  291 


therefore  necessarily  aristocratic  and  possible  only  for  a 
comparatively  few  favored  spirits.  Christianity  aroused 
the  moral  nature  and  placed  its  emphasis  upon  the 
will,  rendering  the  attainment  of  virtue  possible  for 
all.  It  thus  laid  the  foundation  for  a  new  solution  of 
the  educational  problem. 

The  Stoic  philosophy  as  represented  by  Seneca,  Kpic- 
tetus,  and  Marcus  Aurelius  approached  very  closely  to 
the  ethical  teachings  of  Christianity,  for  it  fully  recog- 
nized that  a  regard  for  moral  conduct  was  the  supreme 
need  of  the  time.  Stoics,  equally  with  the  Christians, 
were  the  j&rst  humanitarians.  They  both  beHeved  in 
the  inherent  right  of  every  citizen  to  an  education. 
But  stoicism  could  appeal  only  to  a  limited  few,  whose 
minds  were  already  highly  developed.  Hence  it  can- 
not be  compared  with  Chrisitanity  in  the  extent  of  its 
influence  or  its  bearing  upon  the  matter  of  education. 

None  of  the  ancient  religions  or  philosophies  did 
much  or  were  capable  of  doing  much  for  the  improve- 
ment of  the  people  at  large.  Slavery  everywhere 
abounded,  and  sympathy  with  the  unfortunate  or  re- 
gard for  others  was  seldom  mentioned  by  any  of  them, 
and  rarely  if  ever  highly  commended. 

Professor  Munroe  in  his  History  of  Educatmi  (p.  229), 
in  concluding  a  description  of  the  condition  of  affairs  in 
the  Roman  Empire  to  which  the  Christian  ideas  of 
education  had  to  adapt  themselves,  says  :  "  The  most 
refined  women  of  the  period  were  devoted  to  these  pub- 
lic spectacles  [gladiatorial  combats]  ;  even  women  de- 
scended to  fight  in  the  circus  ;  there  were  connoisseurs 
in  the  expressions  of  men  dying  in  torture  ;  at  private 
banquets  men  were  torn  to  pieces  by  wild  beasts  for 
the  entertainment  of  guests.  It  was  said  of  one  of  the 
emperors  that  he  '  never  supped  without  human  blood. ' 


292  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

These  facts  indicate  how  decadent  beyond  all  modem 
standards  was  this  society  ;  how  impossible  it  is  for  us 
now  to  comprehend  those  times  ;  and  also  what  was 
the  task  before  the  new  Christian  education." 

The  early  church  betook  itself  at  once  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  this  state  of  society.  Consequently  it  gave  its 
attention  almost  wholly  to  the  moral  education  of  its 
members.  Its  only  text-books  were  the  Mosaic  Law 
and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount ;  and  they  inculcated 
standards  of  personal  morality  never  before  heard  of 
by  the  great  mass  of  the  population.  The  testimony 
of  scholars  is  unanimous  that  the  early  Christian  Church 
thus  introduced  into  the  world,  and  enforced,  an  en- 
tirely new  system  of  education,  that  for  several  cen- 
turies, at  least,  produced  results  among  the  most 
remarkable  as  well  as  the  most  beneficial  in  all  history. 

Divorce,  which  had  reached  such  a  state  that  men 
were  said  to  change  their  wives  as  easily  as  their  gar- 
ments, was  made  disreputable  and  largely  suppressed. 
Infanticide,  before  universally  practised,  was  rooted 
out.  The  exposure  of  children  was  made  a  capital 
crime.  Gladiatorial  shows  were  put  down,  and  the 
grossly  lascivious  rites  of  many  pagan  religious  bodies 
abolished. 

The  schools  that  the  early  Christians  established 
were  at  first  as  a  matter  of  necessity  catechumenical. 
They  were  designed  to  give  to  those  who  wished  to 
join  their  number  the  requisite  knowledge  of  their  doc- 
trines and  mode  of  life,  and  also  to  cultivate  an  ac- 
quaintance with  music,  which  they  made  almost  as 
much  use  of  as  the  ancient  Greeks.  Later,  higher 
schools  were  instituted  at  Alexandria  and  other  Eastern 
centres,  where  the  leaders  and  ministers  of  the  church 
were  instructed  in  all  the  Grecian  learning  of  the  day. 


What  Religion  has  to  Do  with  Education  293 


As  time  went  on  a  decided  difference  of  opinion  arose, 
among  those  most  prominent  in  affairs,  as  to  the  value 
of  this  learning,  the  church  Fathers  of  the  East  arguing 
in  its  favor  and  those  of  the  West  against  it. 

Justin  Martyr  declared  that  Plato,  Socrates,  and 
Heracleitus  were  Christians  before  Christ,  and  that 
Grecian  philosophy  tended  to  the  same  end  as  Chris- 
tianity. Clement  claimed  that  "  Plato  was  Moses 
Atticized,"  and  that  the  philosophy  of  the  ancients 
was  *'a  pedagogue  to  bring  the  world  to  Christ." 
Origen,  the  most  learned  of  the  early  Christian  Fathers, 
contended  strongly  for  the  helpfulness  of  the  pagan 
sciences  to  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  and  was  the 
chief  instrument  in  disseminating  the  new  religion 
among  the  Greeks. 

Tertullian,  the  first  of  the  I^atin  Fathers,  on  the 
other  hand,  vigorously  maintained  that  heresies  only 
are  stimulated  by  the  study  of  philosophy.  "What 
indeed,"  he  exclaims,  "has  Athens  to  do  with  Jeru- 
salem ?  What  concord  is  there  between  the  Academy 
and  the  Church  ?  What  between  heretics  and  Chris- 
tians? .  .  .  Away  with  all  attempts  to  produce  a 
mottled  Christianity  of  Stoic,  Platonic,  and  dialectic 
composition  !  " 

Essentially  the  same  point  of  view  was  taken  by 
St.  Jerome,  the  author  of  the  famous  Vulgate  version 
of  the  Scriptures.  A  dream  which  he  records  well 
expresses  his  sentiments  on  this  subject.  On  being 
dragged  before  the  judgment-seat  of  heaven  he  was 
asked,  "  Who  art  thou  ?  "  He  replied,  "  A  Christian." 
But  immediately  his  stricken  conscience  heard  the  awful 
judgment,  "It  is  false:  thou  art  no  Christian;  thou 
art  a  Ciceronian ;  where  the  treasure  is,  there  the  heart 
is  also." 


2  94  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

The  influence  of  Augustine,  the  most  active  and 
powerful  mind  of  the  church  Fathers  of  the  West,  was 
strongly  against  the  classical  learning  in  the  later  period 
of  his  life,  and  he  probably  induced  the  Council  of  Car- 
thage to  prohibit  all  clerics  from  reading  any  of  it.  In 
this  contest  the  Fathers  of  the  West  finally  prevailed 
and  their  victory  resulted,  as  was  to  be  expected,  in  a 
general  lack  of  interest  in  learning  of  every  kind.  It 
brought  on  the  period  commonly  known  as  ' '  the  dark 
ages, ' '  and  for  a  thousand  years  it  impeded  the  progress 
of  education  far  more  effectively  than  any  other  single 
cause,  and  many  think  than  all  other  causes  combined. 

On  account  of  it,  the  education  of  the  early  church 
reached  its  culmination  in  asceticism  and  monasticism. 
For  it  insisted  upon  the  false  doctrine  that  religion  re- 
quires a  renunciation  of  the  world  that  now  is,  the 
abandonment  of  all  real  interest  in  the  affairs  of  every- 
day life,  and  concentrated  its  attention  almost  exclu- 
sively upon  the  world  that  is  to  come.  It  ruled  out  of 
the  sphere  of  thought  the  three  most  important  phases 
of  human  life — the  family,  industrial  society,  and  the 
state, — phases  which  it  is  the  glory  of  the  Christian 
religion,  as  interpreted  in  our  day,  especially  to  extol. 

But  even  the  monks  themselves  were  far  from  being 
satisfied  with  this  narrow  and  one-sided  view.  In  spite 
of  the  disapproval  of  the  church  leaders  for  several 
centuries,  they  kept  alive  a  knowledge  of  the  ancient 
literature,  and  we  owe  it  to  their  care  that  this  know- 
ledge has  been  preserved  to  our  time.  For  centuries  the 
monasteries  possessed  the  only  libraries,  produced  the 
only  scholars,  and  were  the  only  universities  of  research. 

In  spite  of  thelow  state  of  education  during  this  period, 
efforts  were  made  here  and  there  to  broaden  religious 
beliefs  and  bring  about  a  greater  regard  for  the  welfare 


What  Religion  has  to  Do  with  Education  295 

of  man  in  this  life.  It  was  under  the  influence  of  this 
motive  that  the  Emperor  Charlemagne,  toward  the  close 
of  the  eighth  century,  called  Alcuin  from  one  of  the 
cathedral  schools  in  England  to  assist  him  in  reviving 
an  interest  in  learning.  He  full}^  recognized  the  fact 
that  the  chief  instrument  for  uniting  and  elevating  a 
people  is  their  religion,  and  that  if  you  have  ignorant 
and  narrow-minded  clergymen  little  or  nothing  can  be 
done  to  this  end.  Accordingly  he  commanded  that 
letters  be  taught  to  them  in  order  that,  as  he  says  in  his 
capitulary  upon  schools,  there  may  be  "  a  regular  man- 
ner of  life  and  one  conformable  to  holy  religion." 

Still  the  old  ideas,  for  the  most  part,  held  sway  until 
the  thirteenth  century,  when  scholasticism  gained  a  hold 
upon  the  church  and,  for  two  hundred  years,  had  an  al- 
most unmolested  reign.  Education  for  this  period 
chiefly  consisted  in  the  development  of  ability,  under 
the  guidance  of  the  Aristotelian  logic,  to  elaborate  the 
dogmas  of  the  church,  into  the  most  perfect  and  compli- 
cated systems  of  thought.  I^ittle  or  no  attention  was 
paid  to  the  validity  of  the  material  used,  or  to  the  ques- 
tion as  to  whether  equally  or  more  important  facts  had 
not  been  left  out. 

About  this  time,  owing  chiefly  to  the  unrest  within 
their  own  borders,  monastic  schools  here  and  there  began 
to  be  enlarged  into  universities.  The  one  at  Paris  was 
the  most  famous  and  became  the  mother  of  many  others. 
Oxford  was  brought  into  notice  by  a  migration  from 
Paris  in  1229,  and  Cambridge  became  prominent  on 
account  of  a  similar  migration  from  Oxford.  By  the 
time  of  the  Renaissance,  seventy-five  to  eighty  of  these 
institutions  had  arisen  in  different  parts  of  Europe. 
Here  freedom  of  discussion  first  found  its  home.  At 
the  outset  only  one  or  two  subjects  of  a  strictly  theo- 


296  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


logical  character  were  taken  up,  but  later  the  curriculum 
was  enlarged  to  cover  the  entire  range  of  the  then 
existing  studies. 

Although  these  institutions  often  possessed  but  little 
real  power,  still  they  always  kept  alive  the  spark  at 
least  of  independent  investigation.  Out  of  them  came, 
in  course  of  time,  the  forerunners  of  modern  thought 
such  as  Roger  Bacon,  Dante,  Petrarch,  Wycliffe,  Co- 
pernicus, and  Huss,  all  of  whom  did  so  much  to  broaden 
the  religious  conceptions  of  their  age,  and  open  up  the 
way  for  the  development  of  the  modern  spirit.  They 
were  the  first  to  show  the  world  how  unsatisfactory  and 
narrow  was  the  existing  system  of  education,  that  found 
no  worthy  aims  to  be  pursued  in  this  life,  except  those 
that  bore  immediately  upon  the  life  to  come. 

Taking  advantage  of  the  discontent  of  the  people  with 
the  conditions  that  the  crusades  had  largely  brought 
about,  they  did  what  they  could  to  open  up  to  the  world 
three  spheres  of  life  that  for  centuries  had  been  almost 
wholly  unknown  : — the  civilization  of  the  ancients,  to 
which  the  leaders  of  the  church  up  to  that  time  had 
been  almost  wholly  indifferent ;  the  world  of  literature, 
of  which  medieval  thought  was  densely  ignorant ,  and 
the  world  of  nature,  which  was  universally  supposed 
in  that  age  to  exert  upon  man  an  ignoble  and  debasing 
influence. 

Before  this  time  these  realms  of  knowledge  were  re- 
garded as  antagonistic  to  a  religious  life  and  were  not 
cultivated  for  that  reason.  These  men  and  others  like 
them  such  as  John  Reuchlin,  Roger  Ascham,  John 
Sturm,  and  above  all  Erasmus  opposed  this  view  and 
began  the  agitation  that  eventually  led  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  manifold  spheres  of  activity  that  characterize 
our  modern  times. 


What  Religion  has  to  Do  with  Education  297 

The  new  humanistic  learning  was  especially  accept- 
able in  Germany.  The  first  permanent  chair  devoted 
to  it  was  founded  at  the  University  of  Erfurt  in  1494 
where  Luther  was  educated,  and  Wittenberg  from  its 
very  beginning  in  1502  was  one  of  its  principal  centres. 
By  1520  it  was  represented  in  all  the  German  univer- 
sities of  that  day  and  became  one  of  the  chief  instru- 
ments in  bringing  about  the  Protestant  Reformation. 

It  is  to  this  latter  movement  that  we  owe  the  general 
characteristics  of  the  education  of  our  day,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  during  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  cen- 
turies the  results  logically  involved  in  the  fundamental 
positions  of  the  reformers  were  not  realized.  The  bitter 
partisan  and  religious  wars  that  were  waged  during  this 
period  absorbed  the  energies  of  the  people  and  pre- 
vented the  spread  of  free  learning  that  took  place  when 
the  country  had  more  time  to  devote  to  the  art  of  peace. 

The  reformers  were  the  first  to  advocate  the  estab- 
lishment of  systems  of  schools  based  upon  the  idea  of 
universal  education.  "Such  systems  of  state  public 
schools,"  says  Munroe  {History  of  Education,  p.  407), 
* '  are  wholly  due  in  their  origin  to  the  Reformation. 
Their  development  and  completion  awaited  the  growth 
of  the  political  idea  that  the  welfare  of  the  state  depends 
upon  the  education  of  the  individual  citizen.  The  basis 
for  all  these  modern  systems  of  schools  is  found  in  the 
Reformation  doctrine  that  the  eternal  warfare  of  every 
individual  depends  upon  the  application  of  his  own 
reason  to  the  revelation  contained  in  the  Scriptures." 

The  reformers  were  so  persistent  in  this  matter  that 
they  demanded  not  only  the  universal  education  of 
children  of  all  classes  and  both  sexes,  but  the  compul- 
sory education  as  well. 

John  Calvin  did  what  he  could  for  the  establishment 


298  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

of  schools  at  Geneva.  Zwingle  urged  their  general  in- 
troduction in  an  able  treatise  on  ' '  The  Manner  of 
Instructing  and  Bringing  up  Boys  in  a  Christian  Way," 
and  John  Knox  was  the  chief  agent  in  establishing  the 
parish  school  system  of  Scotland. 

But  it  was  in  Germany  that  the  new  ideas  about 
education  were  advocated  with  the  most  persistent 
zeal.  Luther,  Melanchthon,  and  many  others  worked 
heart  and  soul  for  a  wider  dissemination  of  the  oppor- 
tunities for  education  and  a  truer  conception  of  its 
function.  Luther  insisted  upon  the  enlargement  of  the 
curriculum  so  as  to  include  not  only  the  classical  lan- 
guages and  mathematics,  but  history,  science,  music, 
and  gymnastics.  It  is  chiefly  due  to  Luther's  efforts 
that  music  and  physical  education  are  made  so  much 
of  in  Germany  to-day. 

Luther  was  also  a  strong  advocate  of  manual  train- 
ing. "  My  opinion  is,"  he  declares,  "that  we  must 
send  the  boys  to  school  one  or  two  hours  a  day,  and 
have  them  learn  a  trade  at  home  for  the  rest  of  the 
time.  It  is  desirable  that  these  two  occupations  march 
side  by  side." 

He  argues  in  favor  of  a  system  of  schools  supported 
by  general  taxation  that  the  general  welfare  of  religion 
and  of  the  state  requires  it.  "  They  [the  magistrates], ' ' 
he  says,  "do  not  deal  justly  with  their  trust  before 
God  and  the  world  unless  they  strive  to  their  utmost, 
night  and  day,  to  promote  the  city's  increase  and 
prosperity.  .  .  .  But  this  is  the  best  and  the  richest 
increase,  prosperity,  and  strength  of  the  city,  that  it 
shall  contain  a  great  number  of  polished,  learned,  in- 
telligent, honorable,  and  well-bred  citizens,  who,  when 
they  become  all  this,  may  then  get  wealth  and  put  it 
to  good  use."     The  school  systems  of  the  Protestant 


What  Religion  has  to  Do  with  Education  299 

states  of  Europe  are  the  result  of  his  teachings  and 
influence. 

Melanchthon,  the  famous  professor  of  theology  at 
Wittenberg,  is  called  the  Precepter  of  Germany  be- 
cause he  did  so  much  to  formulate  and  carry  out 
Luther's  reforms.  He  not  only  made  Wittenberg  a 
model  for  the  other  universities  of  Germany,  but,  says 
Munroe  (p.  415),  "There  was  scarcely  a  city  in  all 
Germany  but  had  modified  its  schools  according  to 
Melanchthon' s  direct  advice  or  after  his  general  direc- 
tion." His  correspondence  with  fifty-six  of  these  cities 
is  still  in  existence.  He  wrote  nearly  all  the  text- 
books used  in  the  lower  schools  of  his  day,  as  well  as 
the  system  of  Protestant  theology  which  formed  the 
basis  of  the  instruction  in  the  universities. 

Similar  educational  improvements  were  made  in 
England  by  the  reformers  under  the  leadership  of 
such  men  as  Tyndale  and  Latimer,  although  the  sec- 
ondary schools  in  that  country,  owing  to  the  fact  that 
they  soon  passed  under  the  control  of  the  national 
church,  have  not  to  this  day  been  organized  into  any 
well-ordered  system. 

When  the  Roman  Catholic  leaders  began  to  realize 
the  effectiveness  of  the  Protestant  schools  in  advancing 
the  interests  of  their  churches  and  in  furthering  the 
social  and  material  well-being  of  the  people,  they  at 
once  resorted  to  the  same  means.  The  teaching  orders 
adopted  the  new  ideas  and  devoted  themselves  to  put- 
ting them  into  execution.  The  strongest  and  most 
important  of  these  orders  was  that  of  the  Jesuits.  They 
controlled  education  in  the  south  of  Europe  and  in 
France  and  were  also  largely  influential  in  many  parts 
of  northern  Europe.  For  two  hundred  years  according 
to  some  very  competent  judges  theirs  were  the  most 


300  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


successful  educational  institutions  in  existence,  a  great 
proportion  of  the  leading  men  of  Europe  during  that 
period  being  educated  in  them. 

Since  the  time  of  the  reformers  and  the  Jesuits,  sys- 
tems of  education  have  changed  far  more  rapidly  than 
at  any  other  period  in  history,  and  methods  have 
greatly  changed,  but  there  has  been  no  change  in  the 
fundamental  motive  of  education.  As  in  all  previous 
history,  the  chief  inspiring  cause  of  education  has  been 
rehgion  in  some  form.  Christianity  from  its  very  in- 
troduction was  the  primary  stimulus  to  education  in 
all  the  lands  where  it  gained  a  footing  and  it  remains 
so  to  this  day. 

This  is  shown  just  as  truly  from  the  history  of  the 
new  world  as  from  that  of  the  old.  The  Dutch  col- 
onists in  America  were  required  by  the  laws  of  Holland 
to  plant  a  church  in  every  one  of  their  settlements. 
When  the  early  settlers  of  New  England  came  to  these 
shores  they  brought  the  same  devotion  to  education 
that  had  characterized  the  reformers  of  the  mother 
country.  Six  years  after  the  first  settlement  of  Boston, 
Harvard  College  was  organized,  and  the  avowed  pur- 
pose of  its  founders  consisted  "  in  vindicating  the  truth 
of  Christ  and  promoting  his  glorious  kingdom."  The 
original  charter  of  Yale  College  declares  the  motive 
of  the  undertaking  to  be  "a  sincere  regard  to  and 
zeal  for  upholding  and  propagating  of  the  Christian 
Protestant  religion." 

The  first  general  law  for  the  establishment  of  public 
schools  upon  this  continent  was  passed  in  1647  by  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  Colony.  The  preamble  to  the  law 
shows  at  once  its  dominant  motive:  "  It  being  one 
chief  project  of  that  old  deluder,  Satan,  to  keep  men 
from   the  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  as  in  former 


What  Religion  has  to  Do  with  Ediication  301 

times,  keeping  them  in  an  unknown  tongue  .  .  .  ;  and 
to  the  end  that  learning  may  not  be  buried  in  the 
graves  of  our  forefathers  in  church  and  commonwealth, 
the  I^ord  assisting  our  endeavors, — It  is  therefore  or- 
dered," etc.  Every  town  of  fifty  householders  was 
required  to  establish  an  elementary  school,  and  every 
town  of  one  hundred  householders  a  grammar  school. 
These  institutions,  and  others  like  them,  have  been  the 
chief  means  for  carrying  on  the  education  of  the  people 
in  this  country  ever  since,  however  much  courses  of 
study  have  changed,  and  the  way  of  supporting  the 
teachers  has  varied. 

The  great  leaders  in  education,  practically  without 
exception,  have  always  been  more  desirous  of  helping 
on  the  application  of  religious  principles  to  every  form 
of  human  activity  than  they  have  been  of  anything 
else,  and  there  is  not  the  slightest  probability  that  men 
and  women  who  are  publicly  known  to  be  antagonistic 
to  such  principles  will  ever  be  given  the  general  con- 
trol of  the  schools,  either  of  this  or  of  any  other  civilized 
land. 

Comenius,  whom  a  scholarly  writer  extols  as  "the 
man  whose  theories  have  been  put  into  practice  in  ev- 
ery school  that  is  conducted  on  rational  principles," 
avowedly  makes  the  ideas  of  religion  determine  the 
aim  and  scope  of  education.  He  gives  as  the  primary 
principle  of  his  Great  Didactic,  "the  ultimate  end  of 
man  is  eternal  happiness  with  God  "  ;  and  he  main- 
tains that  this  ultimate  end  can  only  be  secured 
by  a  knowledge  of  oneself  and  of  one's  environment, 
a  position  which  even  in  our  time  is  not  yet  fully 
recognized  and  approved. 

In  his  famous  work,  How  Gertrtide  Teaches,  Pesta- 
lozzi  expressly  declares  that  the  prime  object  of  educa- 


302  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

tion  is  to  "build  up  humanity  in  the  image  of  God." 
What  he  rails  at  is  the  way  taken  to  do  it  in  his 
day.  It  is  "  the  mania  for  words  and  books, ' '  he 
says,  * '  which  has  absorbed  everything  in  our  popular 
education.  We  ought  not  to  make  ability  to  commit 
to  memory  theological  texts  the  aim  of  education,  but 
the  development  of  the  child's  entire  nature — mental, 
moral,  and  physical."  He  made  no  attempt  to  change 
the  ultimate  end  of  education,  but  simply  to  improve 
the  method  of  obtaining  it. 

Herbart,  who  built  upon  and  supplemented  the  work 
of  Pestalozzi,  took  the  same  position,  and  all  of  the 
writings  of  Froebel,  from  which  ' '  have  sprung  the 
chief  streams  of  present  educational  thought,"  are  per- 
vaded by  the  most  intense  religious  feeling.  Of  no 
man  could  it  be  more  truthfully  said  that  religion  was 
his  vital  breath.  "All  things,"  he  declares  in  his 
Education  of  Mafi,  "  live  and  have  their  being  in  and 
through  God.  All  things  are  only  through  the  divine 
effluence  that  lives  in  them.  The  divine  effluence  that 
lives  in  each  thing  is  the  essence  of  each  thing."  He 
is  constantly  reiterating  the  thought  that  the  purpose 
of  all  existence  is  to  reveal  God,  and  the  end  of  all 
education  to  develop  the  divine  germ  that  lies  in  each 
one  into  full  and  complete  accord  with  God.  The 
reason  he  gives  for  making  so  much  of  nature  study  is 
the  fact  that  nature  reveals  God  to  the  child.  He  is  to 
be  developed,  not  as  a  preparation  for  a  future  world, 
nor  for  the  sake  of  making  an  adult  of  him,  but  that 
he  may  constantly  participate,  to  the  full  extent  of  his 
powers,  in  the  unity  of  the  life  around  him,  all  of  which 
is  divine.  The  aim  of  the  kindergarten,  for  which 
Froebel  has  become  so  famous,  is  to  aid  the  child  to 
express  himself  and  thus  help  him,  in  the  most  effec- 


What  Religion  has  to  Do  with  Education  303 


tive  way,  to  begin  the  process  of  growing  up  into  the 
divine  likeness. 

From  the  beginning  of  history  the  educational  prob- 
lem has  remained  essentially  the  same,  but  education 
is  such  a  great  subject  that  its  aspects  have  constantly 
changed,  and  as  the  world  progresses  they  will  con- 
tinue to  change.  Some  writers  in  recent  times  have 
with  William  James  emphasized  the  psychological 
aspect.  Some  with  Herbert  Spencer  and  Huxley  make 
the  scientific  aspect  dominant.  Others  would  give  the 
first  place  to  the  sociological  aspect.  Professor  Home, 
in  his  very  able  and  interesting  work  on  The  Philosophy 
of  Education ,  recently  published,  has  at  least  a  chapter 
on  each  of  the  following  aspects  of  education  :  the  bio- 
logical aspect,  the  physiological  aspect,  the  sociological 
aspect,  the  psychological  aspect,  and  the  philosophical 
aspect.  Each  aspect  is  important,  and  all  of  them  put 
together  do  not  exhaust  the  theme.  But  each  and 
every  one  of  them  is  simply  a  phase  of  the  religious 
aspect,  when  religion  is  properly  defined. 

For  religion  is  not  to  be  confounded,  as  has  generally 
been  the  case  in  the  past,  with  some  church  or  so-called 
denomination.  It  has  often  in  the  course  of  history 
been  most  maltreated  in  the  house  of  its  alleged  friends, 
and  most  royally  entertained  quite  outside  of  any  so- 
called  sacred  precincts.  Nor  is  it  to  be  confined  to  any 
single  relationship  of  human  life. 

In  point  of  fact,  the  meaning  of  religion  has  in  recent 
years  undergone  almost  a  revolution.  As  President 
Harris  said  in  his  baccalaureate  address  to  the  class  of 
1907,  at  Amherst  :  "  The  Protestant  Reformation  itself 
did  not  work  a  greater,  though  perhaps  a  more  violent 
change,  than  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  has  marked 
in  religious  thought,  belief,  and  life." 


304  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

The  world  is  now  coming  to  realize  as  never  before 
that  love  to  man  and  interest  in  all  that  concerns  his 
welfare  in  this  world  is  just  as  essential  to  religion  as 
love  to  God  ;  that  the  attempt  to  separate  the  one  from 
the  other  is  a  gross  perversion  of  the  truth.  It  is 
beginning  to  get  the  sense  of  the  apostle  John's  in- 
quiry, '  *  he  that  loveth  not  his  brother  whom  he  hath 
seen,  how  can  he  love  God  whom  he  hath  not  seen  ? ' ' 
and  to  appreciate  the  fact  that  if  we  take  care  to  do  the 
former,  the  latter  will  take  care  of  itself. 

Religion  in  our  day  can  no  longer  be  set  off  by  itself. 
It  should  be  thought  of  as  having  to  do  with  every 
phase  of  life.  There  is  nothing  that  pertains  to  man 
that  does  not  pertain  to  religion.  As  Sir  Oliver  Lodge 
puts  it,  in  a  noteworthy  article  in  the  Conte7nporary 
Review  {yo\.S6,  p.  806),  "the  atmosphere  of  religion 
should  be  recognized  as  enveloping  and  permeating 
everything,"  and  it  permeates  nothing  so  much  as 
education.  It  is  to-day,  as  it  has  always  been,  its  chief 
inspiring  cause.  It  is  now  acknowledged  as  never  be- 
fore to  be  the  religious  duty  of  every  person  to  acquaint 
himself  with  the  world  in  which  he  lives,  to  develop 
his  powers  in  such  a  manner  that  he  may  get  the  most 
out  of  it  he  can  for  his  rational  development  and  use. 
It  is  also  seen  as  never  before  to  be  his  religious  duty 
to  help  his  neighbor  attain  the  same  worthy  ends.  No 
person  can  do  anything  to  elevate  himself  or  others 
without  ideals.  But  all  the  material  out  of  which  ideals 
are  constructed  comes  to  us  from  our  contact  with  the 
world  about  us,  which  is  the  product  of  God.  In  other 
words,  in  order  to  see  anything  at  all  in  this  universe 
we  must  have  a  light,  and  the  master  light  of  all  our 
seeing  is  God. 

A  great  many  different  definitions  have  been  given 


What  Religion  has  to  Do  with  Education  305 

to  the  term  education  in  the  course  of  history,  and  they 
were  never  so  numerous  as  at  present.  James  defines 
education  as  ' '  the  organization  of  acquired  habits  of 
action  such  as  will  fit  the  individual  to  his  physical  and 
social  environment. ' '  Dewey  defines  it  as  ' '  the  process 
of  remaking  experience,  giving  it  a  more  socialized 
value  through  increased  individual  experience,  by  giv- 
ing the  individual  better  control  over  his  own  powers." 
Munroe,  after  pointing  out  that  the  meaning  of  educa- 
tion in  our  day  is  found  in  the  attempt  to  combine  and 
to  balance  the  two  elements  of  personal  development 
and  social  service,  gives,  as  his  final  definition,  "the 
process  of  conforming  the  individual  to  the  given  social 
standard  or  type  in  such  a  manner  that  his  inherent 
capacities  are  developed,  his  greatest  usefulness  and 
happiness  obtained,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  highest 
welfare  of  society  is  conserved  "  {History  of  Education^ 
PP-  755 »  756).  But  it  is  hard  to  see  how  a  clearer,  more 
compact,  or  more  satisfactory  definition  of  education 
can  be  devised  than  that  of  President  Butler.  He  de- 
scribes it  as  the  "  gradual  adjustment  of  the  individual 
to  the  spiritual  possessions  of  the  race. ' ' 

This  definition  rightly  emphasizes  the  fact  that  man 
is  a  spiritual  being  and  is  capable  of  education  for  that 
reason.  All  nature  is  the  embodiment  of  the  ideas  of 
a  spirit  and  hence  it  is  intelligible  to  man,  at  least  in 
some  degree.  He  can  put  himself  into  harmonious  re- 
lations with  it  and  make  use  of  it  for  his  enjoyment 
and  edification.  Because  a  man's  relations  to  his 
fellows  are  spiritual  relations,  he  can  acquaint  him- 
self with  them  and  take  an  interest  in  what  they  have 
accomplished  in  the  past  and  are  doing  in  the  present. 

In  these  modern  times  we  are  seeing  as  never  before 
that  nothing  in  this  universe  is  foreign  to  man.    Every- 


3o6  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

where  he  discovers  his  own  spirit  reflected  in  it.  To 
put  oneself  in  harmonious  relationship  with  this  uni- 
verse in  which  we  live,  in  all  the  variety  of  its 
manifestations,  is  at  once  the  highest  aim  of  education 
and  the  chief  religious  duty  of  every  son  of  man. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THK  CHURCH   AND   THK   RIGHT  TO   PROPERTY.' 

At  the  very  outset  of  my  paper,  I  wish  to  say  that  I 
have  written  it  on  the  assumption  that  there  are  in  this 
world  three  equally  divine  institutions,— the  family, 
the  state,  and  the  church.  I  also  take  it  for  granted 
that  whatever  affects  any  member  of  the  human  race  in 
his  relation  to  one  of  these  institutions  affects  him  in 
them  all.  I  shall,  therefore,  use  most  of  the  time 
allotted  to  me  in  trying  to  explain  how  the  right  to 
property  originates,  and  what  is  involved  in  that  right, 
leaving  its  various  applications  for  the  most  part  to 
your  own  good  judgment. 

The  moment  we  begin  to  reflect  upon  the  matter,  we 
cannot  help  seeing  that  the  right  to  property  is  one  of 
the  most  sacred  rights  of  man.  We  cannot  imagine 
a  people  so  degraded  as  to  be  entirely  devoid  of  the 
idea  of  property,  and  no  community  has  ever  enjoyed 
prosperity  or  attained  a  high  degree  of  culture  where 
the  idea  was  held  in  sHght  esteem.  Indeed,  we  may 
justly  measure  the  progress  of  a  people  in  civilization 
and  true  worth  by  the  clearness  with  which  they  appre- 
hend this  idea  and  the  completeness  with  which  they 
apply  it  to  the  ownership  and  use  of  every  commodity 
that  ministers  to  human  needs. 

But,  sacred  as  this  right  is,  we  greatly  err,  in  my 

1  Address  delivered  before  the  N.  Y.  State  Assoc,  of  Congre- 
gational Churches,  May,  1907. 

307 


3o8  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

opinion,  if  we  suppose  that  the  ground  of  the  right  to 
property  is  first  possession.  No  man  gains  a  just  title 
to  a  thing  because  he  came  upon  it  before  some  one  else. 
If  a  person  to-day  should  discover  a  new  island  in  the 
Pacific  he  would  not  for  that  reason  have  a  right  to 
undisputed  possession.  Suppose  a  band  of  shipwrecked 
sailors  should  be  cast  upon  its  shores.  He  could  not 
justly  claim  that  the  fruits  and  springs  and  other  means 
of  subsistence  he  found  there  were  exclusively  his.  The 
new  world  was  not  the  property  of  Columbus  because 
he  discovered  it,  nor  did  it  belong  exclusively  to  the 
scattered  bands  of  savages  that  occasionally  roamed 
over  its  surface.  Possession  and  use  of  a  thing  can 
never  be  an  ultimate  ground  of  ownership.  Something 
else  must  come  in  to  determine  whether  or  not  that 
possession  be  just. 

We  should  equally  err  in  maintaining  that  the  right 
to  property  is  founded  upon  a  decree  of  the  govern- 
ment. "Property  and  laws,"  says  Bentham,  "were 
born  together,  and  will  die  together.  Before  law  there 
was  no  property  ;  take  away  the  law  and  all  property 
ceases."  The  natural  consequence  of  this  doctrine  is 
that  what  the  statute  could  make  it  could  at  any  time 
unmake.  It  necessitates  the  view  that  there  is  no  right 
to  property  back  of  the  decrees  of  government.  If  this 
were  true,  justice  would  have  no  place  in  determining 
the  possession  and  use  of  property.  All  would  be 
settled  by  an  arbitrary  fiat.  The  governors  might  at 
any  time  decree  that  all  property  should  belong  to 
themselves  alone,  and  no  voice  could  justly  be  raised 
to  call  the  act  in  question. 

Property  may  rightly  be  defined  as  the  fruit  of  human 
labor.  If  there  were  no  men  in  the  world,  there  would 
be  no  property.     Man  alone  is  the  creator  of  all  prop- 


The  Church  and  the  Right  to  Property    309 


ert3^  By  his  labor  he  imparts  an  interchangeable  value 
to  things,  and  this  is  the  beginning  of  his  progress. 
Man  is  capable  of  civilization  because  he  can  produce 
property.  Other  animals  are  swifter  in  the  chase,  bet- 
ter protected  from  the  cold,  and  better  armed  for  strife. 
But  they  cannot  produce  property,  and  therefore  cannot 
advance  beyond  a  certain  fixed  limit.  They  can  be 
property,  but  not  the  owners  and  controllers  of  prop- 
erty. Man,  however,  because  he  is  active,  intelligent, 
and  free,— because  he  is  a  person,— can  so  impress  his 
personality  on  the  objects  of  nature  about  him  by  his 
labor  as  to  acquire  a  just  title  to  property.  In  a  highly 
civilized  community  there  is  scarcely  a  clod  of  earth  or 
a  leaf  that  does  not  bear  that  impress. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  maxim  ''  To  the  doer  belongs 
his  deed  "  is  as  true  of  property  as  of  morals.  A  man's 
natural  right  to  anything  comes  from  the  labor  he  has 
expended  upon  it,  and  is  determined  by  the  extent  of 
that  labor.  Whatever  laws  the  civil  power  may  make 
concerning  the  possession  and  use  of  property,  it  can 
never  justly  ignore  this  right  and  treat  it  as  though  it 
did  not  exist,  any  more  than  it  can  justly  ignore  any 
other  natural  right. 

But  a  matter  of  supreme  importance,  in  my  opinion, 
to  the  proper  treatment  of  the  subject  of  property  is  the 
fact  that  a  natural  right  is  not  of  necessity  an  ultimate 
right.  The  natural  right  to  property,  like  the  natural 
right  to  ''life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness," 
is  never  an  absolute  right.  These  rights,  one  and  all, 
may  justly  be  sacrificed  in  case  the  needs  of  the  com- 
munity require  it.  If  a  man's  life  and  liberty  are  at 
the  disposal  of  the  bod5^-politic,  how  much  more  is  his 
property  ? 

The  true  state  is  an  organism,  and  individuals  are 


3 1  o  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

the  members  of  that  organism.  The  well-being  of  the 
organism  as  a  whole  is  the  thing  of  greatest  moment, 
and  should  be  the  point  of  view  from  which  to  treat  the 
various  parts.  In  the  normal  condition  of  affairs  the 
lungs  and  heart  are  best  developed  by  developing 
the  whole  body.  Every  human  being  finds  the  true 
sphere  for  the  exercise  of  his  natural  rights  in  his  con- 
nection with  his  fellows  in  their  corporate  capacity  as  a 
state. 

The  natural  right  to  property,  therefore,  is  ultimately 
resolvable  into  a  state  right.  The  people,  as  an  organic 
brotherhood,  are  to  decide  what  disposition  is  to  be 
made  of  all  property.  While  the  good  of  the  individual 
and  the  preservation  of  his  right  to  the  products  of 
his  labors  are  of  great  importance,  the  welfare  of  the 
brotherhood  as  a  whole  is  of  far  more  importance,  and 
should  be  the  point  of  view  from  which  the  laws  con- 
trolling the  possession  and  use  of  property  are  finally 
determined. 

The  laws  of  property  that  the  state  enacts  will  seldom 
need  to  set  aside  the  natural  right  to  property,  but  what- 
ever they  may  be,  they  should  never  fail  to  be  founded 
upon  and  to  accord  with  the  following  : 

I .  The  supreme  ownership  of  all  the  natural  sources  of 
property  is  with  the  body-politic.  The  land,  the  water, 
and  the  air  and  all  that  they  contain  are  the  common 
possession  of  the  race.  They  are  under  the  supreme 
control  of  the  whole  people  in  their  organic  capacity  as 
a  state.  Inasmuch  as  the  support  of  every  man  is  de- 
rived from  the  soil,  the  very  existence  of  the  state  would 
be  imperilled  if  the  supreme  ownership  of  the  soil  were 
not  vested  in  the  state  itself.  That  the  community,  and 
not  the  individuals  of  the  community,  originally  owned 
the  land  is  one  of  the  best  attested  facts  of  history. 


The  Church  and  the  Right  to  Property    311 

Indeed,  no  state  has  ever  given  up  that  ownership.  It 
has  only  allowed  individuals  under  certain  conditions 
and  limitations  to  possess  and  use  its  territory.  If  a 
state  should  unconditionally  give  up  its  control,  it  would 
thereby  cease  to  be  a  state.  Its  sovereignty  would  be 
gone.  It  would  lose  the  very  thing  that  makes  it  a  state, 
and  instead  of  one  state,  as  many  states  as  there  were  in- 
dividuals would  suddenly  spring  into  being.  If  a  state 
at  any  time  adopts  the  system  of  individual  control  of 
its  territory,  the  titles  to  the  land  are  derived  from  the 
state,  and  each  citizen  holds  his  land  ever  subject  to  the 
control  of  the  state.  Whenever  the  land  of  the  commu- 
nity gets  into  the  hands  of  the  few  to  the  exclusion  and 
injury  of  the  many,  or  whenever  the  good  of  the  state 
for  any  reason  requires  it,  these  titles  may  justly  be 
revoked  and  individual  control  abolished.  The  state 
is  constantly  doing  it  in  the  exercise  of  the  Right  of 
Eminent  Domain,  and  never  was  doing  it  to  such  an 
extent  as  at  present.  We  have  every  reason  to  ex- 
pect that  as  the  needs  of  intercommunication  increase, 
and  the  people  become  better  acquainted  with  the  many 
injurious  effects  of  the  present  system,  individual  owner- 
ship will  be  much  further  limited.  It  is  vain  to  argue, 
it  seems  to  me,  that  any  system  of  land  tenure  is  of 
necessity  the  best  system.  The  state  should  change 
its  system  with  the  needs  of  the  people  and  keep  it  as 
nearly  as  possible  in  harmony  with  those  needs. 

2.  The  state  has  the  ultimate  control  of  and  responsi- 
bility for  the  methods  of  acquiring  property.  If  the 
sources  of  property  are  under  the  supreme  control  of 
the  state,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  all  property  derived  from 
those  sources  should  be  under  its  control  also.  No  in- 
dividual can  justly  take  any  of  the  materials  of  wealth 
without  the  consent  of  the  state  and  by  his  labor  make 


312  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

them  his  property  ;  and  the  state  can  never  rightly  give 
this  consent  except  with  the  limitation  that  the  ultimate 
ownership  and  control  of  all  property  is  with  itself. 
While  the  state,  therefore,  fully  recognizes  the  natural 
right  to  property  that  comes  from  labor,  it  cannot  re- 
gard this  right  as  absolute,  but  must  itself  determine 
in  what  way  and  by  what  means  property  is  to  be  ac- 
quired. It  must  prescribe  the  legitimate  spheres  of 
labor  and  check  the  wicked  and  useless  expenditure  of 
labor.  It  should  prevent  by  every  means  in  its  power 
the  acquisition  of  property  by  trickery,  by  chance,  by 
counterfeiting,  by  combinations  to  force  up  prices  with- 
out increasing  values,  and  by  immoral  practices  of  every 
sort. 

Any  system  of  acquiring  property  that  is  not  based 
on  labor  cannot  contribute  to  the  well-being  of  man. 
For  the  only  thing  that  is  worthy  of  reward  is  work.  It 
is  a  sound  principle  of  statecraft,  as  well  as  of  morality, 
that  he  who  will  not  work  shall  not  eat.  As  President 
Hyde  has  well  said  in  his  excellent  little  work  on 
Practical  Ethics  :  "An  able-bodied  man  who  does  not 
contribute  to  the  world  at  least  as  much  as  he  takes  out 
of  it  is  a  beggar  and  a  thief." 

The  fact  that  the  government  of  a  state  has  adopted 
in  one  set  of  circumstances  certain  regulations  for  the 
individual  accumulation  of  property  and  has  found  them 
to  contribute  to  the  general  welfare,  is  no  sufficient  rea- 
son why  they  should  be  continued  at  another  time,  under 
a  different  set  of  circumstances.  When  a  country  is  new, 
with  much  to  be  done  and  few  to  do  it,  laws  concerning 
the  accumulation  of  property  may  with  reason  greatly 
vary  from  what  they  should  be  in  a  country  where  the 
conditions  are  just  the  opposite. 

3.    But  the  body-politic  is  not  merely  the  supreme 


The  Church  and  the  Right  to  Property   313 


power  for  determining  the  ways  in  which  property  can 
be  acquired.  It  is  also  the  supreme  authority  for  de- 
termining how  it  should  be  used  after  it  is  acquired. 
No  individual  member  of  the  state  has  a  right  to  use 
his  property  as  he  pleases.  If  he  pleases  to  use  it  for 
the  injury  of  the  state,  to  degrade  and  demoralize  his 
fellows,  the  state  through  its  government  should  put  a 
limit  upon  his  use  and,  if  necessary,  deprive  him  of  it 
altogether. 

The  principle  of  confiscation  is  a  clear  recognition  of 
this  right.  All  nations  agree  that  if  a  citizen  uses  his 
property  to  abet  the  enemy  in  time  of  war  he  has  vio- 
lated the  first  principles  of  government,  and  has  by  this 
act  cut  himself  off  from  his  normal  relation  to  the  com- 
munity and  deprived  himself  of  the  advantage  that 
before  belonged  to  him  as  a  member  of  that  community. 
The  original  condition  on  which  the  state  allowed  him 
the  control  of  his  property  has  disappeared  and  his 
individual  right  to  the  use  of  it  has  disappeared 
also. 

Any  crime  of  any  character  constitutes  a  sufficient 
reason  for  the  state  to  limit  the  use  of  property,  and  the 
more  serious  the  crime,  the  greater  may  be  that  limita- 
tion. Incorrigible  criminals  of  every  description  should 
not  be  allowed  in  any  degree  the  free  use  of  property, 
for  they  constantly  show  by  their  repeated  acts  of  law- 
lessness their  unworthiness  of  such  a  trust. 

Property  that  is  devoted  to  a  good  end  and  is  accom- 
plishing a  worthy  purpose  in  one  generation  may  not  do 
so  in  another.  The  state,  therefore,  should  never  allow 
property  to  be  devoted  for  an  unlimited  period  to  the 
promotion  of  any  enterprise.  At  any  time  when  the 
state  discovers  that  the  welfare  of  the  people  is  not  fur- 
thered by  such  an  enterprise,  it  should  see  to  it  that  the 


314  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

property  that  supports  it  is  devoted  to  some  other  end 
that  does  promote  that  welfare. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Inviolability  of  Vested  Rights 
rests  on  a  false  conception  of  the  right  of  property,  and 
before  the  true  conception  has  no  foundation  whatever. 
The  true  state  will  never  allow  any  individual  or  collec- 
tion of  individuals  to  hold  and  use  property  any  longer 
than  such  holding  contributes  to  the  common  good. 
The  moment  it  ceases  to  do  so,  that  moment  the  vested 
right  becomes  violable. 

The  government  of  one  generation  can  never  unalter- 
ably bind  a  future  generation  as  to  its  use  of  property. 
It  can  never  grant  a  franchise  for  the  use  of  property 
that  a  future  generation  cannot  annul,  or  make  a  con- 
tract that  a  future  generation  cannot  break.  The  word 
'  *  forever  ' '  in  any  document  concerning  the  possession 
and  use  of  property  is  therefore  a  pure  fiction,  and  the 
sooner  it  is  read  out  of  court  the  better. 

Because  a  government  has  once  allowed  corporations 
to  be  formed  for  the  investment  and  use  of  property  is 
no  reason  why  they  should  be  continued  in  existence 
when  they  cease  to  promote  the  public  welfare.  It  is 
not  only  the  right  but  the  duty  of  the  state  to  legislate 
them  out  of  existence  when  it  becomes  clear  that  some 
other  method  of  holding  and  using  property  will  better 
further  the  well-being  of  the  people. 

4.  What  we  have  said  concerning  the  accumulation 
and  use  of  property  is  equally  true  of  the  transfer  and 
descent  of  property.  Here  also  the  state  has  the  ultimate 
and  supreme  control.  For  there  is  no  way  of  making 
property  contribute  to  the  welfare  of  the  commimity  as 
a  whole,  or  of  its  individual  members,  unless  the  state 
has  the  right  to  determine  what  power  of  transfer  the 
holder  shall  have  as  between  himself  and  his  contem- 


The  Church  and  the  Right  to  Prope7-ty    315 


poraries,  and  how  far  his  acts  shall  control  the  use  made 
of  his  property  by  the  generations  that  follow  him.  All 
contracts,  bequests,  deeds  of  sale,  wills,  and  the  like 
must,  therefore,  be  subject  to  the  authority  of  the  state, 
and  if  made  without  that  authority  must  be  regarded 
as  having  no  binding  force. 

To  what  extent  a  dead  hand  should  be  allowed  to  hold 
property  or  a  dead  brain  to  control  it  is  becoming  in  our 
day  a  very  serious  question.  It  is  perfectly  clear  that 
no  such  bequests  of  property  should  stand  if  they  plainly 
interfere  with  the  progress  of  humanity.  But  if  the 
state  sees  fit  to  grant  the  privilege  on  the  ground  that 
labor  will  be  most  effectually  stimulated  thereby,  it 
should  at  best  be  a  limited  privilege.  For  no  man  can 
possibly  foresee  what  will  be  the  need  of  all  coming 
generations,  and  thus  he  cannot  in  any  sense  possess 
a  right  to  say  what  disposition  shall  be  made  of  what 
was  once  his  property  to  supply  that  need. 

The  superstitious  reverence  that  many  still  have  for 
the  dead  hand  and  brain  would  disappear  in  the  light  of 
a  true  conception  of  the  sacredness  of  contracts.  I^iving 
beings  alone  can  make  contracts.  A  dead  person  can- 
not make  a  contract  with  a  live  one,  or  a  live  person 
with  a  dead  one.  A  father,  while  living,  cannot  make 
a  binding  contract  for  his  own  children  even,  after  a 
certain  period.  Honor  and  reverence  are  due  to  all  the 
worthy  who  have  preceded  us,  but  these  things  can 
never  rightly  be  made  a  matter  of  contract.  The  wealth 
of  the  past  would  be  of  comparatively  little  value  to  us  if 
we  did  not  constantly  renew  it.  There  can  be  no  moral 
obligation,  therefore,  upon  the  state  to  have  property 
descend  exactly  as  the  fathers  desire.  The  wealth  of 
any  generation  is  to  be  used  pre-eminently  for  the  good 
of  that  generation,  to  supply  present  needs,  to  establish 


3 1 6  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

and  maintain  the  ideas  of  the  present,  not  to  keep  alive 
and  extend  the  exploded  notions  of  the  past. 

Many  of  the  conditions  attached  to  bequests  under 
our  present  system  are  frequently  more  honored  in  the 
breach  than  in  the  observance.  Clauses  in  wills  are 
often  justly  declared  null  and  void  by  the  courts  be- 
cause they  require  the  legatee  to  do  something  that  is 
counter  to  * '  public  policy. ' '  The  state  has  not  only 
the  right  but  the  duty  to  assume  full  control  of  the  be- 
quests and  legacies  of  any  institution  that  has  outgrown 
its  usefulness,  as  well  as  one  that  is  supporting  prac- 
tices or  promulgating  doctrines  that  are  injurious  to 
the  public  good.  Beyond  all  question  it  should  devote 
them  to  purposes  that  meet  the  needs  of  the  present,  and 
advance  the  civilization  of  man. 

When  for  any  reason  the  wealth  of  the  community 
has  become  concentrated  into  the  hands  of  the  few, 
injury  to  the  public  well-being  of  the  most  disastrous 
character  is  almost  sure  to  follow.  So  great  is  the 
power  that  possessors  of  vast  fortunes  have  over  the 
daily  lives  and  services  of  great  multitudes,  that  when 
more  than  one  half  of  the  property  of  the  United  States, 
with  its  85,000,000  of  inhabitants,  is  owned  by  about 
100,000  men,  it  is  certainly  time  to  call  the  justice  of 
our  laws  seriously  in  question. 

No  tyranny  is  so  dangerous  to  public  life  and  morals 
as  the  tyranny  of  money.  For  there  will  be  little  virtue 
left  in  a  people  whose  actions  are  determined  for  them 
by  dollars  and  cents. 

It  may  reasonably  be  doubted,  it  seems  to  me,  whether 
any  human  being  in  the  short  space  of  three  score  years 
and  ten,  to  say  nothing  of  one  score  years,  can  justly 
acquire  by  his  labor  the  control  over  the  lives  of  his 
fellows  represented  by  ten  millions  of  dollars  or  even  one 


The  CIiMrch  and  the  Right  to  Property   317 


half  that  amount.  At  all  events,  one  of  the  imperative 
needs  of  our  time  is  an  effectual  check  upon  the  amaz- 
ingly skilful  and  elaborate  devices,  now  so  common,  of 
getting  possession  of  the  property  of  the  country  with- 
out rendering  an  equivalent.  There  is  every  reason  to 
suppose  that  a  limit  upon  the  power  of  inheritance  will 
be  such  a  check.  The  government,  being  finite,  may 
often  be  unable  to  discover  to  what  extent  an  individual 
has  brought  under  his  control  the  property  of  the  coun- 
try. At  his  death  this  is  far  less  difficult.  If  the 
courts  were  empowered  to  assess  and  collect  an  in- 
heritance tax,  graduated  in  amount  according  to  the 
needs  and  conditions  of  the  legatees,  the  evil  effects  of 
vast  fortunes  continuing  in  the  hands  of  single  in- 
dividuals would  be  largely  mitigated.  The  time  ought 
not  to  be  far  distant  when  our  state  and  national  taxes 
should  be  chiefly  collected  from  this  source. 

Those  who  have  been  allowed  to  get  possession  of  the 
property  of  the  country  should  at  least  pay  the  taxes  of 
the  country.  Unjust  taxation  is  one  of  the  chief  evils 
of  our  time.  The  rich  can  and  generally  do  escape  their 
share  of  the  burden.  Under  our  present  system  it  is 
such  an  easy  thing  for  rich  men  to  evade  the  payment 
of  taxes  that  even  the  best  of  them  can  hardly  resist 
the  temptation.  The  poor  man  without  money  enough 
to  own  his  home  can  conceal  nothing,  and  has  no 
palace  in  the  country  where  for  the  purposes  of  taxation 
he  can  take  up  his  legal  residence.  The  present  sys- 
tem is  so  manifestly  vicious  and  leads  to  such  a  marked 
oppression  of  the  poor  that  every  voice  in  favor  of  the 
righteous  use  of  property  should  be  raised  against  it. 
Lord  Asquith's  plan  of  mitigating  the  social  evils  of 
England  at  the  expense  of  inherited  wealth  should 
have  the  hearty  support  of  every  right-minded  man  in 


3 1 8  The  Sphere  of  Religio7i 

the  kingdom,  and  be  copied  in  every  other  land.  For, 
as  another  so  truthfully  expresses  it,  "  every  workman 
must  be  constantly  reminded  of  the  fact  that,  while 
numbers  are  unable  to  obtain  a  sufficiency  of  the  neces- 
saries of  Hfe,  others  have  so  much  superfluous  wealth 
that  they  are  able  to  squander  it  in  useless  and  mis- 
chievous luxuries,  and  never  devote  themselves  to  one 
tour's  useful  employment." 

After  all  I  have  said  on  this  subject  of  property,  I 
have  to  admit  that  there  is  nothing  new  about  these 
doctrines.  For  they  are  as  old  as  history  itself,  and 
were,  in  my  opinion,  as  clear  to  the  mind  of  the  writer 
of  Genesis  as  they  could  be  to  any  mind  to-day.  The 
first  people  to  discover  and  to  proclaim  to  the  world,  so 
far  as  I  am  aware,  the  true  conception  of  the  origin 
and  the  nature  of  the  right  to  property  were  the  ancient 
Hebrews.  From  the  first  of  Genesis  to  Revelation  the 
ground  of  the  ownership  of  property  is  always  labor, 
and  the  order  of  ownership  is  always  first  God,  then 
the  race,  then  the  individual.  Neither  Moses  nor  Jesus 
ever  put  the  individual  before  the  race,  or  in  any  way 
called  this  order  in  question.  That  "  The  earth  is  the 
Lord's  and  the  fulness  thereof,"  for  the  reason  that 
*'  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the 
earth,"  was  the  starting  point  of  all  Hebrew  thought. 

And  their  next  great  central  idea  was  that  the  first 
pair,  who  were  the  first  representatives  of  the  race  and 
historically  the  first  state,  being  children  of  God  and 
endowed  with  divine  powers,  got  their  right  to  the 
possession  of  the  earth  and  its  contents  by  obedience 
to  the  divine  command  to  "  subdue  it :  and  have  do- 
minion over  the  fish  of  the  sea  and  over  the  fowl  of  the 
air,  and  over  every  living  thing  that  moveth  upon  the 
face  of  the  earth."     Individual  ownership  they  always 


The  Chicrch  and  the  Right  to  Property    319 


regarded  as  secondary  to  race  ownership,  and  to  be  al- 
lowed only  as  it  contributed  to  the  good  of  the  com- 
munity as  a  whole. 

Every  man  should  be  taught  to  have  a  reverence  for 
property,  but  it  should  not  be  a  superstitious  or  irra- 
tional reverence.  If  his  notion  of  the  right  to  the 
possession  and  use  of  property  harmonizes  with  the 
biblical  conception,  it  harmonizes,  in  my  opinion,  with 
the  best  economic  philosophy  and  the  highest  interests 
of  man.  The  only  fitting  watchword  for  the  treatment 
of  property  in  our  day  is,— Back  to  Moses,  Back  to 
Christ. 

The  circumstances  of  our  age  have  brought  the  sub- 
ject vitally  to  the  front,  and  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  will  not  long  give  their  allegiance  to  any  church 
that  puts  it  in  the  background.  We  do  not  have  in 
this  country  a  state  church,  but  what  we  can  and  ought 
to  have  is  a  church  state,— a  state  in  which  the  mem- 
bers of  our  churches  actually  show  by  their  conduct 
that  they  love  their  neighbors  as  themselves.  For  the 
churches  are  ultimately  responsible  for  the  character  of 
our  laws,  and  what  they  will  unite  in  demanding,  they 
can  have. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  MODERN  STATE.* 

In  a  book  written  nearly  two  thousand  years  ago  by 
a  heathen  of  Boeotia,  in  ancient  Greece,  we  read  these 
words  :  "Go  over  the  world  and  you  may  find  cities 
without  walls,  without  theatres,  without  money,  with- 
out art ;  but  a  city  without  a  temple,  or  an  altar,  or 
some  order  of  worship,  no  man  ever  saw." 

This  statement  is  as  true  in  the  first  quarter  of  the 
twentieth  century  of  the  Christian  era  as  when  it  was 
first  uttered,  and  no  one  at  all  familiar  with  the  results  of 
modern  investigation  and  research  can  reasonably  call  it 
in  question.  Even  the  cannibals  of  Southern  Africa,  the 
most  degraded,  perhaps,  of  all  the  races  of  men,  carry 
their  fetishes  with  them  in  all  their  undertakings,  and 
hide  them  in  their  waist-cloth  whenever  they  are  about 
to  do  anything  of  which  they  feel  ashamed.  *'  There 
is  no  need,"  writes  Dr.  Livingstone  in  his  Journals, 
"for  beginning  to  tell  the  most  degraded  of  these  people 
of  the  existence  of  God  or  of  a  future  state — the  facts 
being  universally  admitted." 

All  observation  and  experience  justify  the  assertion 
that  every  man  is  born  a  worshipper.  He  is  so  made 
that  in  the  very  act  of  coming  to  a  knowledge  of 
his  own  existence  he  intuitively  knows  himself  as 
related  to  a  higher  Power.  He  instinctively  believes 
that  he  is   indebted  for  his  existence  to  this  Power, 

'  Reprinted  from  the  author's  The  Sphere  of  the  State, 
320 


The  Church  and  the  Modern  State     321 


and  that  he  owes  to  him  the  worship  and  service  of  his 
life.  It  is  difficult  to  overestimate  the  influence  of  this 
religious  element  in  human  nature  upon  the  course  of 
history.  It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  it  is  now,  and 
always  has  been,  the  most  important  single  factor  in 
determining  the  progress  of  mankind.  "  As  an  histori- 
cal fact,"  says  another,  "nations  and  governments  and 
religions  have  everywhere  a  connection,  not  only  most 
intimate,  but  which  has  thus  far  shown  itself  indis- 
soluble. If  we  look  more  closely  into  this  historical 
fact,  we  find  that  the  controlling  element  in  their  con- 
nection has  ever  been  the  religious  one.  Nations  and 
governments  have  not  formed  their  religion,  but  their 
religion  has  formed  them."  In  other  words,  the  more 
fully  men  realize  their  relation  to  God  as  their  common 
Father,  the  more  clearly  will  they  recognize  their  rights 
and  duties  to  one  another  as  brethren  and  thus  discover 
the  only  secure  foundation  upon  which  to  ground  the 
state. 

In  one  sense  of  the  term  every  human  being  is  as 
truly  a  member  of  the  church  as  of  the  family  or  state. 
For  every  person  is  by  nature  related  to  God,  as  well 
as  to  his  parents  and  his  fellows.  In  this  sense  the 
church  is  one  and  indivisible  and  includes  every  human 
being.  I,ike  the  family  and  the  state  it  cannot  be 
created  to-day  and  destroyed  to-morrow,  and  like  them 
it  is  of  divine  origin.  For  man  is  so  made  by  his 
Creator  that  whether  he  will  or  no  he  must  be  a  subject 
of  the  divine  government  as  well  as  of  the  human. 

In  another  sense  of  the  term  the  church  is  manifold. 
There  may  rightly  exist  in  the  world  as  many  indi- 
vidual churches  as  the  good  of  the  universal  church 
requires.  A  true  church  is  found  in  human  history 
whenever  a  community  of  human  beings  join  together 


32  2  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


to  worship  and  serve  their  Maker.  Bach  church 
approaches  perfection  as  a  church  just  in  proportion 
as  the  idea  of  a  common  divine  sonship  is  realized  in 
its  members  both  in  themselves  and  in  all  their  mutual 
relations.  In  this  sense  of  the  term  no  church  is  per- 
manent. Old  churches  should  be  dissolved  and  new 
ones  formed  whenever  the  religious  needs  of  man  re- 
quire it. 

No  civil  government  can  justly  ignore  the  church, 
any  more  than  it  can  justly  fail  to  acknowledge  its 
relation  to  the  family.  To  attempt  to  treat  the  church 
and  the  state  as  utterly  distinct  is  as  unreasonable  as 
to  succeed  in  such  an  undertaking  is  impossible.  For 
''  no  civil  government  can  stand  in  the  neglect  of  all 
religion,  and  no  community  can  maintain  its  freedom 
without  a  government  in  some  w^ay  acknowledging  a 
religion."  The  chief  question  before  every  state  is  not 
whether  it  has  any  relation  to  the  church  within  its 
borders,  but  how  to  determine  what  that  relation  ought 
to  be. 

Four  different  answers  have  been  given  to  this  ques- 
tion in  the  course  of  history  and  still  have  their  respec- 
tive advocates : 

I.  Some  hold  that  the  state  should  be  subordinate 
to  the  church  and  should  act  simply  as  the  agent  of 
the  church,  getting  all  the  authority  and  power  it  pos- 
sesses from  the  church  and  not  from  itself.  **  All  na- 
tions without  exception  have  commenced  with  this  re- 
gime. There  are  none  which  have  not  been  governed 
at  first  by  a  religious  power."  As  an  historical  fact, 
religion  has  been  the  only  power  that  could  check  the 
wanderings  of  nomadic  tribes  and  so  fix  them  to  the 
soil  as  to  make  them  accessible  to  the  demands  of  a 
civilized   life.     That  all   primitive  governments  were 


The  Church  and  the  Modern  State     323 

theocratic  is  now  established  beyond  all  reasonable 
dispute.  The  seventh  book  of  the  Code  of  Manu  is 
devoted  entirely  to  the  enumeration  of  the  duties  of 
kings.  In  India  and  the  Orient  from  the  earliest  times 
religion  has  been  dominant.  In  the  greater  part  of 
Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages  the  church  was  supreme 
over  all  classes  and  conditions  and  kept  a  strong  hand 
upon  civil  government. 

In  the  infancy  of  a  nation  the  dominance  of  the 
church  over  civil  government  is  undoubtedly  a  great 
blessing.  Barbarous  and  undisciplined  tribes  cannot 
o<-herwise  be  taught  a  reverence  for  law  and  thus 
made  capable  of  being  brought  under  the  yoke  of  a 
civilized  life. 

In  the  chaos  that  followed  the  wreck  of  the  Roman 
empire,  the  Catholic  Church  was  almost  the  sole  re- 
maining bond  of  social  unity.  The  bishops  were  the 
only  persons  that  commanded  the  respect  of  the 
barbaric  hordes  that  overran  the  south  of  Europe. 

But  what  the  church  did  in  the  degenerate  times  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  and  did  wisely  and  well,  it  should 
not  of  necessity  do  or  desire  to  do  in  other  times  and 
under  other  conditions.  No  one  has  more  clearly  or 
accurately  expressed  the  true  position  on  this  point 
than  the  great  Catholic  writer  Dr.  Von  Schulte.  In 
treating  of  the  legitimate  objects  of  the  church  in  our 
day,  he  says  :  ''During  the  Middle  Ages,  we  see  an 
infinity  of  objects  drawn  into  its  domain,  with  which, 
at  first  glance,  it  would  seem  to  have  nothing  to  do! 
.  .  .  But  it  cannot  be  ignored  that  its  direct  action, 
so  far  as  its  end  and  mission  are  concerned,  has  not  so 
broad  an  aim  now,  and  that  consequently  no  place  in 
things  non-essential  belongs  to  it,  that  none  such  is 
necessary  or  can  appear  necessary  to  it,  and  that  it  has 


324  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

no  right  to  such  a  place.  Rather  can  the  immediate 
and  ever-legitimate  aim  of  the  church  be  this  and  this 
only  :  man  in  his  moral  and  religious  relations.  If 
the  church  here  attains  its  object,  harmony  will  of 
itself  follow." 

2.  Another  view  of  the  relation  of  the  state  to  the 
church  is  that  the  state  is  absolute  master  over  the 
religious  beliefs  and  modes  of  worship  of  its  subjects 
as  truly  as  over  their  secular  affairs.  When  the  Re- 
ligious Peace  was  concluded  at  the  Diet  of  Augsburg,  in 
1555,  the  assembled  princes  adopted  the  direful  maxim  : 
*'  cujus  est  regio,  ejus  religio,''  the  religion  of  the  ruler 
is  the  religion  of  the  land. 

Neither  Melanchthon  nor  Luther  were  blind  to  the 
evil  consequences  of  this  system.  ' '  If  the  courts  wish, ' ' 
wrote  Luther  to  his  friend  Cresser,  *  *  to  govern  the 
churches  in  their  own  interests,  God  will  withdraw  his 
benediction  from  them,  and  things  will  become  worse 
than  before.  Satan  still  is  Satan.  Under  the  popes 
he  made  the  church  meddle  in  politics  ;  in  our  time 
he  wishes  to  make  politics  meddle  with  the  church." 

The  prerogative  of  the  prince  to  impose  his  own  re- 
ligion upon  his  subjects  makes  him  by  right  the  head 
of  the  church  and  puts  the  administration  of  ecclesi- 
astical affairs  under  the  general  administration  of  the 
country.  This  continues  even  to  our  day  to  be  the 
law  of  Protestant  Germany.  But  it  is  rarely  heeded. 
The  German  princes  have  always  been,  as  a  rule,  far 
more  tolerant  than  their  laws  and  have  allowed  public 
opinion,  "  which  is  nowhere  so  independent  in  rehg- 
ious  matters  as  in  Germany,"  to  guide  their  conduct. 
Russia  is  the  only  country  in  which  this  theory  has 
been  put  into  actual  practice.  When  the  patriarchs  at 
Moscow,  urged  on  by  the  Russian  bishops,  broke  with 


The  Church  and  the  Modern  State     325 

the  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  they  sought  for  many 
generations  to  make  themselves  supreme  in  the  church; 
but  Peter  the  Great  frustrated  their  designs  in  1791  by 
declaring  that  he  himself  was  the  head  of  the  church 
as  well  as  the  state,  and  he  thoroughly  reorganized 
the  entire  religious  system  of  Russia  on  that  basis. 
The  result  is  Russia  herself.  It  is  a  debatable  ques- 
tion whether  she  has  a  just  claim  to  a  place  among 
civilized  nations.  So  long  as  a  man  remains  a  man, 
his  morality  and  piety  must  stand  quite  outside  the 
sphere  of  government,  divine  or  human.  True  relig- 
ious belief  and  worship  must  ever  be  the  act  of  a  free 
being,  and  it  is  not  only  absurd,  but  impossible,  for  a 
government  to  coerce  its  subjects  to  the  adoption  of 
any  religious  system  whatever  as  a  matter  of  thought 
and  life. 

3.  A  third  theory  concerning  the  connection  of  the 
church  with  the  state  is  that  they  are  both  sovereign 
powers,  and  that  the  relation  between  them  is  to  be 
determined  by  a  series  of  concordats.  Concordats  have 
repeatedly  been  made  in  China  and  Japan  between  the 
spiritual  powers  and  the  emperors  or  tycoons.  In  our 
day  in  Christian  lands  they  are  almost  always  com- 
pacts made  between  temporal  sovereigns  and  the  popes. 
They  have  been  aptly  described  as  treaties  of  peace 
between  the  civil  and  religious  powers.  Their  main 
object  is  to  put  an  end  to  disputes  that  are  equally 
dangerous  to  both  parties,  and  with  very  rare  exceptions 
they  are  the  results  of  a  long  struggle. 

The  most  famous  of  the  earlier  of  these  compacts 
was  the  concordat  of  Worms  in  11 22.  Henry  V.  had 
been  to  Rome  with  an  army  and  compelled  the  Pope  to 
crown  him  Emperor  and  concede  to  him  the  right  of 
investiture.     When  he  returned  to  Germany  the  Pope 


326  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

revoked  the  concession  and  excommunicated  him. 
The  long  controversy  that  followed  was  for  the  time 
settled  by  this  concordat,  in  which  it  was  agreed  that 
the  Emperor  should  first  invest  with  the  sceptre,  and 
then  consecration  should  take  place  by  the  church 
with  the  ring  and  the  staff. 

Another  good  illustration  of  the  compromise  charac- 
ter of  concordats  is  the  famous  compact  that  Napoleon 
forced  upon  the  representative  of  Pius  VII.  in  1801. 
By  this  agreement  the  clergy  became  subject  to  the 
civil  power,  like  laymen,  in  all  temporal  matters  ;  and, 
though  the  Pope  had  very  large  powers  secured  to  him 
in  matters  of  discipline,  the  appointment  to  all  the 
bishoprics  was  retained  by  the  government  and  all 
the  appointees  were  obliged  to  swear  allegiance  to  the 
republic. 

Concordats  by  their  very  nature  can  never  be  final, 
for  they  are  based  on  concessions  that  are  never  en- 
tirely satisfactory  to  either  of  the  contracting  parties. 
In  all  countries  where  they  exist  it  has  been  necessary 
to  modify  them  unceasingly,  or  replace  them  by  en- 
tirely new  ones.  France,  during  the  19th  century, 
had  three  different  concordats,  and  many  times  that 
number  in  recent  years  have  been  made  and  abolished 
in  Germany  and  Austria.  The  struggle  goes  on  under 
the  regime  of  concordats  in  nearly  the  same  form  as 
before  their  establishment. 

No  state,  if  it  can  possibly  avoid  it,  should  ever 
make  contracts  of  this  sort  with  any  outside  power. 
If  compelled  to  do  so  it  should  submit  to  the  imposi- 
tion only  under  protest,  and  as  a  temporary  device  for 
warding  off  far  greater  ills  that  would  be  sure  to  come 
to  the  body-politic  if  it  persisted  in  the  endeavor  to 
maintain  its  right  of  sovereign  power.     France,  for  ex- 


The  Church  and  the  Modern  State      327 


ample,  was  obliged,  in  the  condition  of  affairs  that  long 
prevailed  in  that  country,  scrupulously  to  observe  the 
existing  concordat  in  order  to  continue  her  present 
form  of  government.  But  the  time  finally  came  when 
she  was  able  to  throw  off  all  allegiance  to  any  outside 
sovereign  power,  and  provide  in  a  more  efficient  and 
consistent  manner  for  the  nation's  religious  needs. 

4.  The  fourth  proposed  theory  is  that  the  church  and 
the  state  are  so  utterly  distinct,  their  spheres  of  action 
are  so  entirely  different,  that  their  absolute  separation 
is  the  only  solution  of  the  problem  before  us  that  can 
be  permanent,  and  can  carry  us  back  to  the  ultimate 
ground.  The  simplicity  of  this  solution  must  be  evi- 
dent to  the  most  thoughtless  observer.  But  its  sim- 
plicity is  its  only  redeeming  feature.  All  history  is 
against  it,  and  reason  is  against  it.  No  nation  has 
ever  yet  been  able  to  get  along  without  religion,  and 
religion  has  never  yet  flourished  without  houses  of 
worship  and  a  properly  supported  religious  service. 

The  state  can  no  more  cut  itself  off  from  the  church 
than  it  can  from  the  family.  It  stands  in  the  same 
relation  to  the  one  as  to  the  other.  A  recent  writer 
in  the  North  Americayi  Review  advocates  the  absolute 
separation  of  the  state  from  the  family.  He  claims 
that  the  government  should  not  in  any  way  attempt 
to  regulate  marriage  and  divorce,  but  should  leave  the 
matter  of  the  formation  and  continuance  of  the  family 
wholly  to  the  pleasure  of  the  parties.  Few  seriously 
minded  thinkers  will,  however,  agree  with  him  in  this 
opinion.  But  it  is  no  more  absurd  a  doctrine  than  the 
absolute  separation  of  church  and  state.  Fortunately 
there  is  no  danger  of  the  doctrine  ever  being  put  into 
actual  practice.  For  its  realization  is  an  impossibility. 
So  long  as  man  remains  upon  the  earth   these  three 


328  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


divinely  established  institutions  will  remain  in  such 
intimate  and  vital  relations  to  one  another  that  any 
injury  to  one  will  be  an  injury  to  all,  and  any  good  to 
one  will  be  a  benefit  to  all.  It  is  only  in  a  state  of  in- 
sanity, as  at  the  time  of  the  French  Revolution,  that 
any  people  have  ever  taken  up  arms  against  religion 
and  sought  as  a  body-politic  to  cut  themselves  off  from 
its  benign  and  civilizing  influence. 

5.  The  true  relation  of  the  state  to  the  church  is 
that  of  mutual  helpfulness.  They  should  not  act  as 
two  antagonistic  powers,  or  two  mutually  exclusive 
powers,  but  as  two  divinely  commissioned  institutions, 
both  having  to  do  with  man,  but  the  one  with  man  in 
his  relation  to  his  fellows,  and  the  other  with  man  in 
his  relation  to  his  Maker.  So  far  as  its  earthly  form 
of  organization  is  concerned,  the  church  should  be 
subject  to  the  state,  as  the  only  sovereign  temporal 
power ;  but  so  far  as  its  religious  belief  and  worship 
are  concerned,  it  should  be  its  own  sovereign  master. 

No  state  can  justly  ignore  or  belittle  the  religious 
convictions  of  its  members.  On  the  contrary,  it  should 
do  what  it  can  to  bring  those  convictions  into  harmony 
with  its  own  ideas  as  to  what  the  public  good  requires. 
It  should  foster  and  encourage  the  practice  of  that  re- 
ligion whose  teachings  concerning  the  nature  of  man 
and  his  relations  to  his  fellows  most  fully  accord  with 
its  own  conception  of  those  relations.  Neither  the 
Mohammedan  nor  the  Buddhistic  religions  are  founded 
on  ideas  that  harmonize  with  the  true  conception  of 
the  state,  and  therefore  the  state  should  not  encourage 
the  existence  of  their  sway  over  its  subjects.  The  only 
rehgion  whose  teachings  accord  with  the  conception 
of  the  state  as  an  organic  brotherhood  is  the  Christian 
religion.      Wholly  on  that  ground  is  the  state  justified 


The  Church  and  the  Modern  State     329 

in  furnishing,  in  some  way,  the  necesbary  means  for 
obtaining  instruction  in  the  principles  of  this  religion, 
and  full  opportunity  for  worshipping  in  accordance 
with  its  dictates  to  all  who  may  desire. 

Every  modern  state  ought  to  be  a  Christian  state. 
By  this  we  do  not  mean  that  every  state  ought  to  be 
ruled  by  a  hierarchy  according  to  the  teachings  of  the 
Bible,  or  according  to  religious  tradition.  For  this 
would  be  wholly  antagonistic  to  the  idea  of  Christian- 
ity, and  at  war  with  the  historical  development  both 
of  the  church  and  the  state.  What  we  mean  by  the 
statement  is  simply  that  every  state  should  be  con- 
scious that  the  Christian  religion  is  the  religion  of  its 
people,  and  it  should  live  up  to,  and  act  upon,  this 
consciousness.  It  should  recognize  the  fact  that  Chris- 
tianity is  a  fundamental  condition  of  its  own  develop- 
ment, and  "  is  not  only  the  basis,  but  the  living  element 
of  our  civilization."  We  cannot  too  strongly  insist 
upon  the  importance  to  the  welfare  of  the  state,  and 
the  efl&cient  administration  of  government,  of  keeping 
alive  among  the  people  a  strong  faith  in  a  personal 
God,  and  his  righteous  government  of  the  universe. 
For  without  this  faith  the  spiritual  bond  that  binds  all 
men  together  as  brethren  would  be  broken,  the  very 
foundation  of  government  would  crumble  into  pieces, 
all  unity  in  the  order  of  the  world  would  be  lost,  and 
the  inevitable  result  would  be  anarchy  and  chaos. 

No  writer  has  more  accurately  or  more  truthfully 
described  the  relation  of  Christianity  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  modern  state  than  Bluntschli,  who  sum- 
marizes its  beneficent  effects  in  substance  as  follows: 
I .  * '  It  has  awakened  among  the  people  a  high  sense 
of  human  dignity  and  honor.  Since  the  time  it  first 
taught  men   to  regard  themselves  as  children  of  a 


330  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


common  Father,  the  value  of  human  life  has  been  held 
in  far  higher  esteem  than  ever  before  in  human  his- 
tory. 2.  By  the  doctrine  of  the  fatherhood  of  God  it 
has  brought  men  to  a  consciousness  of  their  equality 
and  fraternity  in  relation  to  one  another.  Acting  as  a 
liberating  force  upon  all,  even  on  the  lowest  class,  the 
slaves,  it  gave  a  new  foundation  to  the  liberty  of  all, 
and  has  transformed  the  face  of  Europe.  3.  It  has  put 
a  legitimate  restraint  upon  the  power  of  monarchs  by 
reminding  them  of  their  accountability  to  the  Supreme 
Ruler,  and  by  demanding  of  them  that  they  should  re- 
spect their  subjects  as  their  brethren  in  Christ.  4.  It 
has  revealed  the  affinity  of  all  the  races  of  the  earth, 
and  by  opposing  the  narrow  spirit  of  sectionalism  with 
its  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  the  human  species,  it  be- 
came the  source  of  a  higher  and  nobler  conception  of 
the  moral  principles  that  should  regulate  the  inter- 
course of  nations,  and  thus  laid  the  foundations  for  the 
eventual  civilization  of  the  world." 

"  In  proportion  as  nations  come  to  understand  human 
nature,"  Bluntschli  continues,  "  they  will  respect  the 
religion  which  has  guided  them  in  their  intellectual 
advance,  and  infinitely  promoted  their  civilization.  On 
this  account  the  state,  although  now  conscious  of  itself 
and  grown  independent,  will,  in  the  future,  take  into 
consideration  the  moral  demands  Christianity  may 
make,  and,  so  far  as  its  laws  and  power  permit,  try  to 
grant  them.  The  religion  of  mankind  and  the  politics 
of  mankind— each  adhering  to  its  own  principles— will 
continue  in  close  and  friendly  reciprocal  relations,  and 
thus  united  they  will  best  promote  the  welfare  of  the 
human  race." 

In  the  light  of  these  considerations  it  is  not  difficult 
to  see  that  the  question  of  an  "  established  religion  " 


The  Church  and  the  Modern  State     331 

is  merely  a  question  of  expediency  to  be  settled  by 
each  generation  as  the  need  of  the  people  may  require. 
The  position  taken  by  one  state  on  this  matter  in  one 
set  of  circumstances  is  not,  of  necessity,  a  standard  for 
another  state  in  a  different  set  of  circumstances.  For 
whether  the  religious  wants  of  a  community  can  be 
better  satisfied  by  the  direct  action  of  the  government, 
or  by  the  system  of  private  management  and  voluntary 
support,  is  not  a  question  that  alone  by  itself  admits 
of  a  positive  answer.  Sometimes  the  former  method 
should  be  followed,  sometimes  the  latter.  The  cus- 
toms of  the  people  in  similar  matters,  their  past  his- 
tory, and  all  the  present  attendant  circumstances, 
should  be  taken  into  consideration  before  coming  to 
a  final  decision.  If,  for  example,  the  property  of  the 
country  has  become  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  a 
few,  and  the  mass  of  the  people  have  not  the  means  to 
build  churches  and  support  pastors,  the  government 
should  raise  the  revenue  needed  by  a  direct  tax.  Means 
for  the  maintenance  of  religious  instruction  and  places 
for  worship .  should  in  some  way  be  provided  b}^  the 
people.  If  it  cannot  be  done,  or  will  not  be  done,  by 
voluntary  contributions,  the  government  should  not 
hesitate  to  act  in  the  matter,  any  more  than  in  provid- 
ing instruction  and  discipline  in  anything  else  that  is  of 
importance  to  the  welfare  of  the  state.  Nor  is  there 
any  reason,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  why  religious  in- 
struction and  opportunity  to  worship  should  not  con- 
tinuously be  furnished  by  the  government,  if  it  is  the 
general  desire  of  the  people  to  have  the  matter  attended 
to  in  that  manner. 

The  possible  disadvantages  of  such  a  system  are 
obvious  :  it  might  tend  to  minimize  the  importance  of 
religion  as  an  individual   matter,   and   to  check   the 


332  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

independent  growth  and  development  of  religious  sen- 
timent. It  might  result  in  putting  a  premium  on 
deception  as  to  one's  religious  convictions  for  fear  of 
incurring  the  displeasure  of  the  government.  It  might 
lead  some  to  array  themselves  against  the  government 
for  compelling  them  to  help  support  an  institution  in 
which  they  had  no  personal  interest. 

But  it  also  has  its  possible  advantages.  Being 
obliged,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  to  recognize  and 
foster  religion,  it  might,  by  selecting  a  particular  form, 
give  greater  definiteness  to  its  support  of  religion  than 
would  otherwise  be  possible.  It  might  often  use  the 
clergy  directly,  if  necessary,  for  the  furtherance  of  its 
own  purposes.  It  might  secure  by  this  method  a  far 
higher  degree  of  general  religious  culture. 

Every  state  in  deciding  on  its  course  of  action  in 
this  matter,  as  in  every  other,  should  take  into  consid- 
eration all  the  data  of  the  case,  and  do  whatever  in  its 
own  judgment,  in  the  given  conditions,  best  conserves 
the  good  of  all. 

Of  course,  no  state  is  justified  in  taking  the  position 
that  any  one  way  of  fostering  religion  is  absolutely  the 
best  way,  or  that  any  one  form  of  church  government 
is  absolutely  the  best  form,  even  though  it  should 
claim  that  the  Christian  religion  is  actually  the  only 
religion  in  history  that  teaches  ideas  that  are  consonant 
with  the  true  conception  of  the  state.  For  evidently 
there  may  be  in  a  Christian  state  many  different  ways 
of  looking  at  the  Christian  religion,  and  as  many 
forms  of  church  government  as  there  are  forms  of  civil 
government.  Because  a  given  form  was  beneficial  to 
the  religious  progress  of  mankind  in  one  age  and 
country  under  one  set  of  circumstances,  is  no  vSufficient 
reason  that  it  will  continue  to  be  so  when  the  condi- 


The  Church  and  the  Modern  State     ^iZZ 

tions  are  wholly  different.  Nor  should  a  form  that 
failed  to  work  well  in  an  early  period  of  history  be 
wholly  discarded  for  that  reason  in  a  later.  The  people 
of  each  generation  have  the  same  right  to  change  the 
form  of  their  church  government  as  the  form  of  their 
civil  government.  And  the  state  ought  to  allow  and 
sanction  the  change  whenever  the  ends  for  which  the 
church  exists  among  men  will  be  best  promoted  by  so 
doing. 

The  framers  of  our  national  Constitution  undoubtedly 
voiced  the  will  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  when 
they  inserted  in  the  first  amendment  to  that  document 
the  clause  :  * '  Congress  shall  make  no  laws  respecting 
an  establishment  of  religion,  or  prohibiting  the  free 
exercise  thereof"  The  ground  of  the  opposition  to 
this  amendment  at  the  time  of  its  adoption  was  not  at 
all  the  policy  of  the  government  regarding  an  estab- 
lishment of  religion,  but  the  need  of  any  such  amend- 
ment, as  no  one  thought  of  advocating  any  other 
policy.  Livermore  of  New  Hampshire  unhesitatingly 
declared,  concerning  all  the  amendments,  that  they 
were  "of  no  more  value  than  a  pinch  of  snuff,  since 
they  were  to  secure  rights  never  in  danger."  This 
clause  in  our  national  Constitution,  however,  does  not 
prevent  any  of  the  separate  States  from  passing  any 
laws  they  please  ' '  respecting  an  establishment  of  relig- 
ion," or  treating  the  religious  beliefs  of  their  subjects 
in  any  way  they  may  desire.  The  framers  of  this 
amendment  were  not  indifferent  to  religion  themselves, 
nor  did  they  wish  the  United  States  to  be  so  in  the 
future.  "  Probably  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution,  and  of  the  amendment  to  it,  now  under 
consideration,"  says  Judge  Story  in  his  Exposition  of 
the    Constitution^    ''the   general,  if  not  the  universal, 


334  ^^^^  Sphere  of  Religion 

sentiment  in  America  was  that  Christianity  ought  to 
receive  encouragement  from  the  state,  so  far  as  was 
not  incompatible  with  the  private  right  of  conscience 
and  the  freedom  of  religious  worship.  An  attempt  to 
level  all  religions,  and  to  make  it  a  matter  of  state 
policy  to  hold  all  in  utter  indifference,  would  have 
created  universal  disapprobation,  if  not  universal 
indignation." 

It  was  clearly  not  the  purpose  of  the  makers  of  the 
Constitution  to  countenance  the  introduction  of  Mo- 
hammedanism, or  Buddhism,  or  even  infidelity,  "but 
to  exclude  all  rivalry  among  Christian  sects,  and  pre- 
vent any  national  ecclesiastical  establishment  which 
should  give  to  a  hierarchy  the  exclusive  patronage  of 
the  national  government."  Every  American  colony, 
with  the  possible  exception  of  Rhode  Island,  from  its 
foundation  down  to  the  time  of  the  forming  of  the 
Constitution,  had  openly  supported  some  form  of  the 
Christian  religion.  And  this  amendment  was  adopted 
for  the  purpose  of  leaving  the  subject  of  religion  ex- 
clusively to  the  separate  commonwealths.  At  the  first 
test  case  before  the  Supreme  Court  * '  the  decision  was 
that  the  Constitution  contained  no  clause  guaranteeing 
religious  liberty  against  the  several  States,  which  might 
make  such  regulations  on  the  subject  as  they  saw  fit." 
Nor  does  the  Constitution  contain  any  clause  prohibit- 
ing the  national  government  from  deciding  what  forms 
of  religious  belief  it  will  tolerate,  and  what  forms  it 
will  not.  "  In  deciding  the  Mormon  cases,"  says  Jus- 
tice Miller,  "  the  Supreme  Court  held  that  the  pretence 
of  a  religious  belief  in  polygamy  could  not  deprive 
Congress  of  the  power  to  prohibit  it,  as  well  as  all 
other  offences  against  the  enlightened  sentiment  of 
mankind, ' ' 


The  Church  and  the  Modern  State     335 

Many  of  the  separate  States  have  adopted  constitu- 
tions limiting  the  action  of  their  respective  govern- 
ments even  more  stringently  than  Congress  is  limited 
by  the  clause  already  quoted.  Art.  I.,  Sec.  3,  of  the 
Constitution  of  New  York  begins  as  follows  :  "The 
free  exercise  and  enjoyment  of  religious  profession  and 
worship  without  discrimination  or  preference  shall  for- 
ever be  allowed  in  this  State  to  all  mankind,  and  no 
person  shall  be  incompetent  to  be  a  witness  on  account 
of  his  opinions  on  matters  of  religious  belief."  The 
Constitution  of  Wisconsin  is  probably  more  stringent 
on  this  point  than  that  of  any  other  State  in  the  Union. 
Besides  the  clause  against  ' '  sectarian  instruction  ' '  in 
the  public  school,  the  Constitution  provides  :  "(i)  The 
right  of  every  man  to  worship  Almighty  God  according 
to  the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience  shall  not  be 
abridged.  (2)  Nor  shall  any  man  be  compelled  to 
attend,  erect,  or  support  any  place  of  worship,  or  to 
maintain  any  ministry  against  his  consent.  (3)  Nor 
shall  any  control  or  interference  with  the  right  of  con- 
science be  permitted,  or  any  preference  given  by  law 
to  any  religious  establishments  or  modes  of  worship. 
(4)  Nor  shall  any  money  be  drawn  from  the  treasury 
for  the  benefit  of  religious  societies,  or  religious  or 
theological  seminaries." 

These  provisions  are  undoubtedly  in  the  main  wise 
and  beneficial  in  a  country  made  up  of  so  many  differ- 
ent races  and  sects  as  ours.  But,  notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  the  word  ' '  forever ' '  occurs  so  frequently  in 
them,  they  are  all  subject  to  amendment  or  repeal 
whenever  the  people,  in  their  organic  capacity  as  a 
state,  desire  to  make  it.  None  of  them,  whether  state 
or  national,  imply  an  absolute  separation  of  the  state 
from    religion,    or    prohibit    the   giving   of   religious 


336  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

instruction  in  our  public  schools,  or  elsewhere,  if  the 
good  of  the  people  requires  it.  Nor  do  they  in  any 
degree  militate  against  the  fact  that  the  United  States 
is  a  Christian  nation ;  and,  while  tolerating  all  relig- 
ions that  do  not  tend  to  subvert  the  public  good, 
especially  encourages  and  fosters  the  religion  of  Christ. 

No  one,  it  seems  to  me,  has  ever  expressed  more 
clearly  the  position  that  should  be  taken  by  every 
modern  state  on  this  subject  than  Judge  Story  in  the 
work  already  referred  to,  in  which  he  says  :  *'The 
right  of  a  society  or  government  to  interfere  in  matters 
of  religion  will  hardly  be  contested  by  any  persons  who 
believe  that  piety,  religion,  and  morality  are  intimately 
connected  with  the  well-being  of  the  state,  and  indis- 
pensable to  the  administration  of  civil  justice.  The 
promulgation  of  the  great  doctrines  of  religion:  the 
being,  and  attributes,  and  providence  of  one  Almighty 
God ;  the  responsibility  to  him  for  all  our  actions, 
founded  upon  moral  freedom  and  accountability  ;  a 
future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments ;  the  cultiva- 
tion of  all  the  personal,  social,  and  benevolent  virtues  ; 
— these  never  can  be  a  matter  of  indifference  in  any 
well-ordered  community.  It  is,  indeed,  difl&cult  to 
conceive  how  any  civilized  society  can  well  exist  with- 
out them.  And,  at  all  events,  it  is  impossible  for  those 
who  believe  in  the  truth  of  Christianity  as  a  divine 
revelation  to  doubt  that  it  is  the  especial  duty  of  gov- 
ernment to  foster  and  encourage  it  among  all  the  citi- 
zens and  subjects.  This  is  a  point  wholly  distinct 
from  that  of  the  right  of  private  judgment  in  matters 
of  religion,  and  of  the  freedom  of  public  worship  ac- 
cording to  the  dictates  of  one's  conscience." 

If  at  any  time  in  the  history  of  a  state  voluntary 
associations  do  not  furnish  the  people  with  proper  re- 


The  Church  and  the  Modern  State     337 


ligious  instruction  and  proper  opportunities  for  wor- 
ship, the  state  should  not  be  left  to  suffer.  The 
government,  if  necessary,  should  establish  and  maintain 
a  system  that  does  adequately  provide  for  the  public 
need.  The  state  should  always  regard  religion  as  a 
means,  not  as  an  end.  It  should  never  try  to  compel 
its  subjects  to  adopt  any  system  of  religious  belief,  or 
•conform  to  any  mode  of  worship.  But  it  should  furnish 
to  every  citizen  full  opportunity  to  acquaint  himself 
with  the  essentials  of  religion,  and  grant  him,  also, 
every  reasonable  facility  for  giving  expression  to  his 
religious  belief  in  the  forms  of  worship  he  may  most 
desire. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THK   SCIENTIFIC   METHOD   IN  THEOLOGY.' 

The  correspondence  between  Professor  St.  George 
Mivart  and  Cardinal  Vaughan  concerning  the  Profes- 
sor's recent  articles  on  the  relation  of  educated  Roman 
Catholics  to  the  Bible  marks  a  most  significant  epoch 
in  the  history  of  religious  thought.  It  brings  most 
strikingly  to  view  the  fact  that  the  time  is  past  when 
any  one  can  serve  the  cause  of  true  religion  by  ignoring 
the  methods  of  modern  science.  It  also  makes  clear 
and  vivid  the  necessity  of  establishing  our  theological 
beliefs  on  just  the  same  scientific  basis  as  our  beliefs  in 
any  other  sphere  of  inquiry,  if  they  are  going  to  influ- 
ence in  any  effective  way  the  thought  of  the  future. 

The  aim  of  the  present  paper  is  to  set  forth  with  clear- 
ness the  principles  that  underlie  all  our  beliefs,  and  then 
to  show  how  these  principles  are  to  be  applied  to  the 
particular  field  of  investigation  we  now  have  in  view. 

It  is  customary  in  discussing  the  method  of  science 
to  go  back  to  Aristotle  and  treat  of  the  subject  under 
the  two  distinct  heads  of  induction  and  deduction.  But 
we  now  see  that  the  two  methods  are  not  wholly  inde- 
pendent of  each  other.  In  reality,  they  are  frequently 
blended  or  employed  alternately  in  the  pursuit  of  science. 
It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  all  the  more  important 
and  extensive  investigations  of  science  rely  as  much 
upon  the  one  as  upon  the  other.    In  both,  the  syllogism, 

'First  published  in  the  North  American  Review^  April,  1900. 

338 


The  Scientific  Method  in  Theology      339 


with  its  major  and  minor  premises  and  conclusion,  holds 
the  foremost  place.  For  the  syllogism  is  not  only  the 
form  of  deductive  reasoning,  but  it  is  the  true  type  of 
all  reasoning  properly  so  called.  It  may  not  be  always 
necessary  to  express  an  argument  in  the  form  of  a  syl- 
logism, but  it  must  always  be  thrown  into  this  form 
when  scientific  accuracy  is  required. 

While  there  is  little  or  no  disagreement  among  think- 
ers about  the  nature  and  place  of  deduction  in  science, 
there  is  often  a  great  deal  of  controversy  over  the  sphere 
and  proper  function  of  induction.  This  arises  from  the 
fact  that  the  term  induction  may  be  employed  in  at  least 
three  different  senses. 

In  the  first  place,  induction  may  be  used  to  designate 
the  old  Socratic  method  of  attaining  definitions.  This 
consists  simply  in  enumerating  all  the  particulars  of  a 
class.  It  is  what  is  sometimes  called  a  perfect  induc- 
tion; and,  although  it  is  in  the  form  of  reasoning,  it 
is  not  reasoning  at  all.  All  we  do  in  such  a  case  is 
to  solve  a  simple  problem  in  addition  and  state  the 
result. 

Induction,  according  to  the  second  meaning  given  to 
the  term,  is  any  process  of  adding  to  our  knowledge.  It 
was  Bacon's  chief  objection  to  the  Aristotelian  logic  that 
its  premises  were  all  taken  for  granted.  It  could  never, 
in  his  opinion,  in  any  way  increase  our  knowledge.  He 
therefore  asked  the  question.  How  do  we  obtain  our 
knowledge,  and  how  do  we  progress  in  it  ?  His  answer 
to  the  question  was,  By  induction  ;  and,  as  contrasted 
with  the  old  method,  the  term  took  on  the  meaning  of 
any  process  that  adds  anything  to  what  we  already 
know  at  any  given  time.  But  this  view  of  induction  is 
too  broad,  just  as  the  first  view  is  too  narrow.  It  in- 
cludes every  other  mode  of  acquiring  knowledge  as  well 


340  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

as  reasoning,  while  the  first  view  excludes  reasoning 
altogether. 

The  third  and  most  rational  definition  of  induction 
represents  it  as  the  process  of  thought  by  which  we  pass 
from  particulars  to  generals,  or  from  effects  to  their 
causes.  It  is  only  in  this  sense  that  it  can  in  any  way 
be  brought  into  contrast  with  deduction,  as  one  of  the 
essential  methods  employed  in  the  pursuit  of  science. 

Of  course,  the  chief  preliminary  step  in  any  induction 
is  the  acquisition  of  the  particulars,  and  this  can  only 
be  done  by  the  two  processes  ot  observation  and  experi- 
ment. But  they  do  not  form  any  part  of  induction 
properly  so  called.  The  mere  ascertainment  of  facts 
does  not  make  a  scientist.  There  are  a  thousand  work- 
ers in  science  to  one  scientist.  The  most  exact  observ- 
ers and  the  most  skilful  experimenters  are  not,  by  any 
means,  the  best  scientists.  Quite  the  opposite  is  prob- 
ably the  rule.  Many  of  the  world's  greatest  scientists 
have  been  notoriously  defective  in  this  respect.  Never- 
theless, a  highly  developed  science,  in  any  department 
of  knowledge,  is  possible  only  upon  the  basis  of  a  large 
supply  of  carefully  ascertained  facts. 

The  great  and  distinctive  element  in  all  induction  is 
the  formation  of  the  hypothesis  ;  and  there  can  be  no 
inductive  science  formed  of  any  sort  where  this  is  not 
the  chief  feature. 

What,  then,  is  to  be  understood  by  an  hypothesis, 
and  what  is  the  process  the  mind  goes  through  in  bring- 
ing it  to  view  ?  An  hypothesis  is  a  supposition,  a  guess, 
or  conjecture  as  to  what  the  general  fact  is  which  in- 
cludes the  given  particular  facts,  or  what  the  cause  is 
which  has  brought  about  the  given  effects.  The  term 
is  sometimes  contrasted  with  the  term  "theory,"  as 
though  the  two  were  necessarily  distinct ;  an  hypothesis 


The  Scientific  Method  in  Theology      341 

being  regarded  as  a  mere  possibility,  while  a  theory  is 
called  a  verified  hypothesis.  But  this  view  is  largely  an 
arbitrary  one,  as  the  terms  are  often  used  interchange- 
ably, as  when  we  speak  indifferently  of  the  Darwinian 
hypothesis  or  the  Darwinian  theory. 

Much  might  be  said  about  the  conditions  most  favor- 
able for  making  a  good  hypothesis,  but  the  chief  thing 
that  concerns  us  for  our  present  purpose  is  the  fact  that 
every  hypothesis,  however  formed,  is  always  a  product 
of  the  coiistructive  imagination.  All  previous  acts  are 
simply  by  way  of  gathering  material  for  the  imagination 
to  rearrange  and  recombine  into  a  new  creation. 

In  a  certain  sense,  the  mind  takes  a  leap  into  the 
dark.  It  literally  passes,  per  saltu^n^  from  the  realm 
of  the  known  to  the  realm  of  the  unknown.  From  all 
the  material  that  the  memory  places  at  its  disposal  it 
makes  a  guess  or  conjecture  as  to  what  will  best  meet 
all  the  exigencies  of  the  situation. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  men  of  science,  in  all  realms 
and  in  all  ages,  have  always  been  men  of  powerful  im- 
aginations. The  Greeks  were  the  first  great  scientists 
of  the  race,  because  they  were  far  more  highly  endowed 
than  any  other  people  with  great  imaginative  powers. 
What  they  saw  excited  those  powers  and  urged  them 
to  conjecture,  to  reason  about  things,  and  try  to  ex- 
plain their  nature  and  cause.  It  was  well  said  by  Dr. 
Carpenter  that  '*it  cannot  be  questioned,  by  any  one 
who  carefully  considers  the  subject  under  the  light  of 
adequate  knowledge,  that  the  creative  imagination  is 
exercised  in  at  least  as  high  a  degree  in  science  as  it  is 
in  art  or  poetry.  Even  in  the  strictest  of  sciences — 
mathematics — it  can  easily  be  shown  that  no  really 
great  advance,  such  as  the  invention  of  fluxions  by 
Newton  and  of  the  differential  calculus  by  Leibnitz, 


342  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

can  be  made  without  the  exercise  of  the  imagination." 

Given  the  hypothesis,  the  next  step  in  the  scientific 
process  is  to  verify  it ;  and  this  is  done  by  making  the 
hypothesis  the  major  premise  of  a  deductive  syllogism 
and  noting  the  results.  If  the  conclusions  obtained 
coincide  with  the  observed  facts  with  which  we  started, 
the  hypothesis  is  probably  a  correct  one,  and  other 
things  being  equal,  may  be  accepted  as  an  established 
truth. 

From  this  outline  of  the  scientific  method  we  see 
that  no  induction  can  be  established  beyond  a  high 
degree  of  probability.  That  is,  no  one  can  ever  be 
absolutely  certain  that  the  hypothesis  he  assumes 
is  a  veritable  truth.  All  generalizations  in  every 
science  thus  have  their  logical  basis  in  the  theorj^  of 
probabilities. 

When  Bishop  Butler  asserted  that  **  probability  is 
the  very  guide  of  Hfe,"  he  might  have  added,  "and 
we  have  no  other."  For  all  our  judgments  of  what 
the  past  has  been,  or  the  present  is,  or  the  future  will 
be,  are  necessarily  formed  on  that  basis  ;  and  as  we 
are  finite  creatures  and  can  never  have  infinite  know- 
ledge on  any  of  these  subjects,  the  knowledge  we  do 
have  can  never  be  more  than  probable. 

The  truth  is  that  every  man  is  so  constituted  by 
nature  that  he  can  never  be  absolutely  certain  of  any- 
thing outside  of  the  facts  of  his  own  consciousness  and 
the  simple  intuitions  necessarily  involved  therein  ;  and 
when  he  makes  an  assertion  transcending  this  realm, 
he  passes  at  once  into  the  sphere  of  the  probable. 

What  we  know  with  absolute  certainty  is  never  a 
matter  of  inference.  It  is  never  the  result  of  a  process 
of  reasoning.  It  is  always  known  directly,  at  once,  by 
an  immediate  beholding.     It  is  easy  to  see,  therefore, 


The  Scientific  Method  in  Theology      343 


that  the  realm  of  absolute  certainty  is  a  clearly  limited 
one,  and  that  the  realm  of  probability  includes  within 
itself  the  great  body  of  our  knowledge.  I  am  abso- 
lutely certain  that  I  experience  sensations,  that  I  who 
experience  them  exist,  and  that  the  sensations  have  a 
cause ;  but  I  can  be  only  probably  certain  that  this 
particular  concrete  object  was  the  cause.  It  is  exceed- 
ingly easy  for  the  most  cautious  person  living  to  be 
mistaken  in  his  judgments,  and  to  draw  wrong  infer- 
ences from  the  data  furnished  by  any  one  or  all  of  his 
senses  ;  and  he  can  never  be  absolutely  certain  that  he 
draws  the  right  one.  All  the  wisest  man  in  the  world 
can  do  is  carefully  to  estimate  the  probabilities  in  the 
case  and  act  accordingly.  To  say  of  a  thing,  *'  I  have 
seen  it  with  my  own  eyes,"  is  only  to  make  its  exist- 
ence probable;  and  to  obey  the  injunction,  "Handle 
me  and  see, ' '  can  give  only  probable  knowledge. 

In  every  discussion  of  this  sort  a  clear  distinction 
should  always  be  made  between  intuitively  knowing 
and  believing.  I  intuitively  know  a  thing  to  be  true 
when  I  am  absolutely  certain  of  it ;  I  believe  a  thing 
to  be  true  when  I  fall  short,  however  little,  of  such  cer- 
tainty. That  is  to  say,  belief  is  simply  imperfect 
knowledge.  It  is  any  kind  of  knowledge,  in  any 
sphere,  which  fails,  in  any  respect,  of  being  absolute. 
No  proposition,  perhaps,  is  more  familiar  to  a  beginner 
in  logic  than  the  statement,  *'  All  men  are  mortal," 
but  even  that  assertion  can  be  to  him  nothing  more 
than  a  matter  of  a  high  degree  of  probability.  For  he 
has  known  only  a  very  few  men  in  the  past,  and  as  to 
those  who  may  come  to  exist  in  the  future  he  cannot 
positively  assert  that  they  will  possess  that  property. 
He  simply  believes  the  proposition  to  be  true,  in  just 
the  same  way,  and  no  other,  as  he  might  believe  in  a 


344  ^^^  Sphere  of  Religion 

material  heaven,  or  a  mountain  of  gold,  or  the  real 
existence  of  a  centaur. 

Every  natural  scientist,  I  suppose,  accepts  and 
teaches  the  doctrine  that  every  particle  of  matter  at- 
tracts every  other  particle  directly  as  the  mass  and 
inversely  as  the  square  of  the  distance.  But  he  has  ex- 
amined only  a  few  of  the  particles ;  and,  from  the  very 
nature  of  the  case,  he  can  never  be  certain  that  those 
he  has  not  examined  are  exactly  like  those  he  has. 
The  doctrine  furnishes  him  with  a  good  working  hy- 
pothesis. The  probabilities  are  very  high  in  its  favor. 
But  all  he  has  any  right  to  say  about  it  is  that  he 
believes  in  the  law  of  gravitation,  not  that  he  is 
absolutely  certain  of  its  truthfulness. 

And  so  it  is  when  we  come  to  the  realm  of  theology. 
We  employ  the  same  finite  powers  of  mind  in  con- 
structing a  theology  as  in  forming  a  science  of  botany 
or  of  physics.  There  is  no  difference  in  the  kind  of 
knowledge  we  have  of  each,  but  only  in  the  class  of 
objects  taken  into  consideration.  And  my  faith  in  the 
truth  or  falsity  of  their  respective  doctrines,  and  the 
degree  of  my  faith  in  them,  should  always  vary  with 
the  degree  of  their  probability. 

Theology,  properly  understood,  is  the  science  which 
seeks  to  account  for  the  universe  from  the  standpoint 
of  God.  It  attempts  to  put  all  the  known  facts  together 
into  a  system  around  this  idea.  It  does  not  draw  its 
material  from  any  alleged  revelation  alone,  although 
the  revelation,  if  true,  will  furnish  some  of  its  most 
important  data.  But  it  gathers  its  material  from  every 
realm  of  knowledge.  Every  new  fact  discovered  in 
any  quarter  of  the  universe  increases  its  material,  and 
every  old  supposed  fact  exploded  diminishes  it. 

Now,  all  the  facts  that  any  man  can  possibly  know 


The  Scientific  Method  iri  Theology     345 

may  best  be  divided,  for  our  present  purpose,  into  two 
classes,  internal  facts  and  external  facts.  By  internal 
facts  we  mean  the  facts  of  one's  own  consciousness,  and 
by  external  facts,  all  else  that  can  be  mentioned.  The 
former  are  certain  to  one,  the  latter  merely  probable. 
Every  man  who  constructs  a  botany,  or  a  geology,  or 
any  other  science,  makes  it  out  of  probable  facts  only. 
Every  man  who  writes  a  history  states  and  explains 
nothing  of  which  he  can  be  more  than  probably  certain. 
How  evident  it  is,  then,  that  he  who  seeks  to  give 
unity  to  all  the  sciences,  to  explain  the  universe  in 
which  the  great  mass  of  the  facts  are  only  probable, 
can  never  attain  to  more  than  a  probable  solution  of 
the  problem,  and  can  never  justly  ask  another  to  ac- 
cept his  conclusions  on  any  other  ground  than  the  high 
degree  of  their  probability. 

Great  thinkers,  from  Thales,  Plato,  and  Moses,  have 
had  their  theologies — their  explanations  of  the  origin 
and  nature  of  the  universe,  as  they  understood  it,  and 
many  of  these  explanations  have  been  of  extraordinary 
merit;  but  even  St.  Paul  himself  could  never  have  been 
certain  that  his  explanation  was  more  than  a  probably 
true  one. 

Three  great  systems  of  theology  are  presented  in  the 
New  Testament.  Some  prefer  that  of  St.  Paul ;  some 
find  the  Petrine  theology  more  to  their  mind ;  while 
others  adhere  to  that  of  St.  John.  The  Apostles'  Creed 
contains,  perhaps,  the  sum  and  substance  of  all  three  ; 
but  no  assertion  in  it  transcends  the  realm  of  the  prob- 
able. A  brief  examination  of  the  creed  itself  will  make 
this  apparent.  It  begins  with  the  statement,  *'  I  be- 
lieve in  God,  the  Father  Almighty,  Maker  of  heaven 
and  earth."  Now,  the  existence  of  a  Power  back  of 
nature  and  all  finite  being,  like  one's  own  existence, 


346  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

is  a  matter  of  positive  certainty  ;  but  any  assertion 
concerning  the  nature  of  that  Power,  since  it  is  an 
induction  from  probable  facts,  can  never  be  more  than 
probable.  When  we  say,  therefore,  with  the  creed, 
that  God  is  the  Father  Almighty,  Maker  of  heaven 
and  earth,  we  are  asserting  something  about  the  nature 
of  the  Supreme  Being  of  which  no  man  can  be  more 
than  probably  certain.  The  degree  of  confidence  we  are 
justified  in  having  in  this  statement  depends  on  the 
degree  of  its  probable  truthfulness. 

Take,  again,  the  statement  of  the  creed  concerning 
the  nature  and  mission  of  Jesus  :  * '  And  in  Jesus  Christ, 
His  only  Son,  our  Lord ;  who  was  conceived  by  the 
Holy  Ghost,  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary  ;  suffered  under 
Pontius  Pilate,  was  crucified,  dead  and  buried ;  He 
descended  into  hell ;  the  third  day  He  rose  from  the 
dead ;  He  ascended  into  heaven,  and  sitteth  on 
the  right  hand  of  God,  the  Father  Almighty  ;  from 
thence  He  shall  come  to  judge  the  quick  and  the 
dead." 

Whether  there  ever  existed  on  the  earth  such  a  per- 
son as  Jesus,  and  what  he  experienced,  are  purely 
matters  of  historical  evidence.  And  as  everything  that 
is  a  matter  of  evidence  is  a  matter  of  probabiHty,  this 
must  be  also.  We  can  never  be  absolutely  certain  that 
those  who  wrote  his  history  were  really  acquainted 
with  the  facts  of  his  life,  or  have  honestly  represented 
them,  or  that  their  testimony,  after  being  once  recorded, 
has  not  been  so  frequently  and  radically  altered  as  to 
give  us  to-day,  in  some  respects,  an  erroneous  concep- 
tion of  the  truth.  Even  if  we  regard  the  record  as  it 
stands  as  veritable  history,  the  doctrine  of  the  actual 
divinity  of  Jesus,  that  he  is  in  reality  son  of  God  as 
well  as  son  of  man,  is  an  induction  from  certain  alleged 


The  Scientific  Method  in  Theology      347 

facts,  and  can,  therefore,  never  be  established  beyond 
all  possible  doubt. 

The  creed  closes  with  the  affirmation  :  "I  believe  in 
the  Holy  Ghost ;  the  Holy  Catholic  Church  ;  the  com- 
munion of  saints  ;  the  forgiveness  of  sins ;  the  resur- 
rection of  the  body ;  and  the  life  everlasting." 

The  writer  of  this  passage,  from  the  data  that  he  had 
before  him,  simply  drew  the  conclusion  that  the  argu- 
ments in  favor  of  these  propositions  were  far  stronger 
than  those  against  them;  and,  accordingly,  he  was 
ready  to  say  concerning  them,  as  he  does  say  in  the 
statement  itself,  "I  believe  "—not  '' I  am  absolutely 
certain  of  their  truthfulness." 

But  it  makes  no  difference  to  the  matter  in  hand 
from  what  source  he  obtained  his  information.  Even 
if  we  allow  that  every  word  in  Scripture  came  directly 
from  the  lips  of  the  Almighty,  no  man  could  ever  be 
more  than  probably  certain  that  he  correctly  heard  the 
words  when  they  were  uttered,  or  correctly  wrote  them 
down,  or  correctly  understood  them  after  they  were 
written,  either  by  themselves  or  in  their  mutual  rela- 
tions. There  is  always  room  for  possible  doubt  con- 
cerning any  of  these  assertions ;  and  all  that  the 
profoundest  thinker  can  do  for  them  is  to  establish 
their  probable  truthfulness. 

What  we  have  said  concerning  the  so-called  Apostles' 
Creed  applies  with  equal  force  and  validity  to  every 
creed  in  Christendom  and  to  every  system  of  theology, 
however  elaborately  constructed  or  however  dogmati- 
cally expressed.  The  most  certain  of  their  generaliza- 
tions are  probable,  and  probable  only,  and  those  who 
teach  them  are  never  justified  in  urging  their  acceptance 
upon  others  on  any  other  ground.  The  only  theology 
that  has  any  basis  for  its  existence  is  an  inductive 


348  The  Sphere  of  Religio7i 

theology;  and  just  as  "all  inductions  in  physical 
science  are  only  probable,"  so  they  are  in  theological 
science  also. 

It  is  never  necessary,  in  fact  it  is  never  possible,  to 
do  more  for  any  doctrine  in  any  department  of  inquiry 
than  to  show  that  the  balance  of  probabilities  is  in  its 
favor.  When  we  have  shown  that,  we  have  made  the 
doctrine  worthy  of  credence,  we  are  entirely  justified 
in  accepting  it  as  a  truth  and  adopting  it  as  a  rule  of 
conduct. 

He  who  says  of  any  generalization  in  any  sphere  of 
thought  that  he  will  not  accept  it  as  true  until  he  is 
absolutely  certain  of  it,  literally  does  not  know  enough 
to  eat  when  he  is  hungry,  or  to  drink  when  he  is 
thirsty.  The  conduct  of  an  ordinary  idiot  would  put 
him  to  the  blush.  As  John  I^ocke  so  tersely  puts  it, 
"  He  that  will  not  stir  until  he  infallibly  knows  that  the 
business  he  goes  about  will  succeed,  will  have  but 
little  else  to  do  but  to  sit  still  and  perish." 

Every  man,  because  he  is  a  man,  is  endowed  with 
powers  for  forming  judgments,  and  he  is  placed  in  this 
world  to  develop  and  apply  those  powers  to  all  the  ob- 
jects with  which  he  comes  in  contact.  In  every  sphere 
of  investigation  he  should  begin  with  doubt,  and  the 
student  will  make  the  most  rapid  progress  who  has 
acquired  the  art  of  doubting  well.  But  doubt  is  sim- 
ply a  means  to  an  end,  not  an  end  in  itself.  We  begin 
with  doubt  in  order  that  we  may  not  end  with  it.  To 
continue  to  doubt  after  the  material  for  forming  a 
judgment  is  before  the  mind,  is  a  sign  of  weakness. 
The  man  who  does  so  commits  intellectual  suicide. 
All  you  can  do  for  him  is  to  give  him  a  decent  burial 
and  pass  on. 

We  ask  that  every  student  of  theology  take  up  the 


The  Scientific  Method  in  Theology      349 


subject  precisely  as  he  would  any  other  science  ;  that 
he  begin  with  doubt,  and  carefully  weigh  the  argu- 
ments for  every  doctrine,  accepting  or  rejecting  each 
assertion  according  as  the  balance  of  probabilities  is 
for  or  against  it.  We  demand  that  he  thoroughly 
"test  all  things,"  and  thus  learn  how  to  ''hold  fast 
that  which  is  good." 

We  believe  that  even  the  teachings  of  Jesus  should 
be  viewed  from  this  standpoint,  and  should  be  accepted 
or  rejected  on  the  ground  of  their  inherent  reasonable- 
ness. But  we  also  firmly  believe  that  the  probabilities 
that  he  spoke  the  truth  are  so  high  that  they  can 
never  be  made  any  higher  ;  that,  when  his  doctrines 
concerning  God  and  man  and  nature  are  correctly  ap- 
prehended, it  will  clearly  be  seen  that  they  fully  satisfy 
the  demands  of  the  intellect  and  the  cravings  of  the 
heart.  And  we  do  not  regard  it  as  at  all  likely  that 
any  theology  of  the  future  will  have  much  influ- 
ence over  the  minds  of  the  thoughtful  that  does 
not  draw  its  chief  and  most  important  data  from  that 
source. 

Superficial  critics  call  the  age  in  which  we  live  an 
age  of  novel-reading  and  devotion  to  trifles  ;  but  the 
more  thoughtful  observer  does  not  hesitate  to  affirm 
that  it  is  unsurpassed  in  earnestness. 

True,  it  is  disinclined  to  acknowledge  the  super- 
natural. True,  it  is  more  inquiring  than  asserting, 
more  doubting  than  believing.  Yet  there  probably 
never  has  been  a  time  in  our  history  when  purely  spir- 
itual questions  have  been  so  Vv-idely  and  seriously  dis- 
cussed as  at  present.  The  creeds  of  the  world,  both 
Christian  and  un- Christian,  have  never  before  been 
studied  with  such  universal  interest,  or  criticised  with 
such  unsparing  vigor. 


3  50  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


In  fact,  the  one  pre-eminent  demand  of  the  present 
hour  is  a  truly  scientific  theology— not  a  Chinese  nor  a 
Roman  nor  an  Anglican  theology,  not  a  Baptist  nor 
a  Methodist  nor  a  Presbyterian  theology,  not  a  Mosaic 
nor  exclusively  a  Pauhne  theology,  but  a  theology  so 
cautiously  constructed  as  to  exclude  all  fiction,  and  so 
profound  and  comprehensive  in  its  teachings  as  to 
include  all  the  facts. 

But  this  imperative  need  of  the  age  will  never  be 
satisfied  until  every  student  of  the  subject  clearly 
recognizes  the  fact,  and  constantly  applies  it,  that  in 
theology,  as  in  every  other  department  of  knowledge, 
all  generalizations  are  matters  of  a  high  or  a  low  de- 
gree of  probability,  to  be  accepted  or  rejected  according 
as  the  balance  of  probabihties  is  for  or  against  them  ; 
and  that  the  degree  of  confidence  we  should  have  in 
such  generalizations  is  to  be  determined  by  the  degree 
of  their  probable  truthfulness. 

This  position,  it  may  be  said,  requires  that  all  our 
theological  opinions  should  be  very  largely  regarded  as 
products  of  faith.  We  admit  it  at  once,  and  we  reply 
that  this  is  true  of  all  opinions.  Faith  lies  at  the  basis 
of  every  science.  So  far  from  faith  commencing 
where  science  ends,  ' '  there  could  no  more  be  science 
without  faith  than  there  could  be  extension  without 
space. ' ' 

What  Professor  Rice  has  so  fittingly  said  in  his 
Twe7ity-five  Years  of  Scientific  Progress  about  the  phy- 
sical sciences  applies  with  equal  relevancy  here : 
* '  From  the  clear  recognition  of  the  extremely  narrow 
limits  within  which  certitude  is  attainable,  we  may 
learn  the  rationality  and  wisdom  of  acting  upon  beliefs 
which  are  probable,  and  acting  with  an  earnestness 
proportionate   to   the   importance   of  the   interest   in- 


The  Scientific  Method  i7i  Theology      351 


volved.  We  may  learn  to  walk  by  faith  more  steadily 
by  perceiving  that,  in  this  universe  in  which  we  live, 
only  he  who  is  willing  to  walk  by  faith  can  walk 
at  all." 


CHAPTER  X. 

HUMAN       IMMORTAI^ITY      AND      ITS      RKI.ATION      TO 
RE^IvIGION. 

Dr.  F.  C.  S.  Schii,i,kr,  formerly  of  Cornell  Univer- 
sity, but  now  of  Oxford,  in  the  Fortnightly  Review  for 
September,  1901,  discusses  at  length  the  question,  "  Do 
Men  Desire  Immortality  ? ' '  and  he  does  not  hesitate  to 
affirm  that  "to  find  it  a  dominating,  or  even  an  im- 
portant, influence  in  human  psychology,  one  would 
have  to  seek  it,  not  in  the  churches  or  the  universities, 
and  still  less  amid  the  bustle  of  active  life,  but  in  the 
asylums  in  which  are  secluded  the  unhappy  victims 
of  religious  mania  or  melancholy,  in  whom  an  insane 
logic  has  overpowered  the  healthy  indifference  to  death 
and  its  consequences,  characteristic  of  the  make-up  of 
the  normal  mind." 

"  Where,"  said  Dr.  William  Osier  of  Johns  Hopkins, 
in  his  lecture  at  Harvard  last  year  on  ' '  Science  and 
Immortality,"  "where  among  the  educated  and  re- 
fined, much  less  among  the  masses,  do  we  find  any 
ardent  desire  for  a  future  life  ?  .  .  .  Immortality,  and 
all  that  it  may  mean,  is  a  dead  issue  in  the  great 
movements  of  the  world." 

Professor  Leuba  of  Bryn  Mawr  College,  in  the  Inter- 
national Journal  of  Ethics  for  October,  1903,  concludes 
a  searching  criticism  of  Professor  Hyslop's  recent  "  Re- 
port on  Seventeen  Sittings  with  Mrs.  Piper"  with 
these  words  :      "  Professor  Hyslop's  careful  investiga- 

352 


Hmnan  Immortality  353 

tion  may  have  at  least  one  good  result — the  modera- 
tion of  the  disturbing  wish  of  a  certain  class  of  people 
for  a  future  life.  They  may  learn  to  face  the  actual 
present  more  resolutely  and  wisely.  .  .  .  And  as  to 
the  Christian  religion,  forswearing  its  stupendous  mis- 
take regarding  the  future  life,  it  would,  let  us  hope, 
have  grace  enough  to  turn  around  and,  instead  of  lead- 
ing men  to  immortality,  endeavor  to  deliver  them  from 
it,  even  as  Buddhism  does." 

These  and  similar  utterances  from  many  quarters 
clearly  indicate  that  the  doctrine  of  a  future  life  for 
man  is  held  in  serious  question,  and  they  fully  justify 
the  attempt  to  give  the  matter  a  fresh  examination. 
We  therefore  definitely  raise  the  inquiry,  Is  the  doc- 
trine, in  the  light  of  modern  knowledge,  any  longer  to 
be  regarded  as  a  probable  truth  ? 

But  before  betaking  ourselves  directly  to  our  task, 
we  would  remark  that  if  the  doctrine  of  human  immor- 
tality should  turn  out  to  be  fallacious,  religion  would 
not  be  annihilated  thereby.  We  do  not  agree  with  a 
recent  writer  on  the  subject  that  "  we  can  as  little  con- 
ceive of  religion  without  immortality  as  without  God." 
For  religion  is  not  founded  primarily  upon  the  fact  of 
death  or  any  other  similar  phenomenon.  It  is  the 
natural  creation  of  the  mind  of  man  as  a  knowing, 
feeling,  and  willing  being.  If  human  life  should  be 
indefinitely  prolonged,  such  a  change  in  the  ordinary 
ongoings  of  nature  would  not  destroy  it. 

Students  of  anthropology  are  now  generally  agreed 
that  belief  in  existence  after  death  is  co-extensive  with 
the  human  race.  It  springs  up  spontaneously  in  every 
man,  and  he  sets  out  on  his  career  as  a  man  with  the 
assumption  of  its  truthfulness.     Dr.   Brinton,  in  his 


354  '^^^  Sphere  of  Religion 

work  on  Religions  of  Primitive  Peoples,  clearly  ex- 
presses this  fact  concerning  primeval  man  when  he 
says,  "  To  him  all  things  live  and  live  forever."  His 
gods  being  the  source  of  life,  he  could  no  more  die  than 
they  could.  Doubt  regarding  a  future  life  never  arises 
in  the  infancy  of  any  race  or  individual.  It  comes  only 
when  the  facts  of  human  experience  seem  to  call  it  in 
question.  Many  religions,  it  is  true,  have  a  vague 
notion  of  immortality,  and  some  deny  it  altogether,  but 
they  are  not  primitive.  The  word  "religion"  comes 
from  the  Romans,  and  was  originally  applied  to  the 
observance  of  a  set  of  rites  and  ceremonies.  Con- 
siderations bearing  upon  a  future  life,  or  even  a  regard 
for  morals,  had  little  to  do  with  it.  *'  Belief  in  immor- 
tahty,"  says  Professor  Granger  in  his  work  on  The 
Religion  of  the  Romajis,  "  was  not  a  part  of  the  Roman 
religion  anj^  more  than  was  a  moral  temper  of  mind." 
Cesar's  Epicureanism  was  no  bar  to  his  serving  as 
chief  pontiff,  nor  was  his  wild  and  dissolute  youth. 
Many  people  in  all  ages  of  the  world  have  come  to  dis- 
belief in  individual  immortality,  and  many  reject  it  to- 
day. But  no  one  can  deprive  himself  of  religion  by 
holding  to  such  an  opinion,  although  the  character  of 
his  religion  will  be  immensely  affected  thereby. 

At  the  very  outset  of  our  investigation  we  wish  to 
emphasize  the  fact  that  all  we  are  in  search  of  is  a 
probable  truth  ;  for  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case  no 
position  that  can  be  taken  upon  this  subject  can  give  us 
certainty.  All  of  the  accepted  doctrines  concerning  the 
origin  and  destiny  of  the  world  in  which  we  live  are 
outside  the  realm  of  certain  proof.  It  is  no  objection, 
therefore,  to  the  doctrine  of  human  immortality  that  it 
does  not  admit  of  demonstration.  It  is  a  future  event, 
and   for  that  reason  cannot  be  more   than   probable. 


Human  Immortality  355 

Supposing  it  could  be  shown  that  some  men  have  sur- 
vived death  (and  we  have  no  right  to  hold  that  all 
eflforts  to  do  so  must  be  futile),  that  would  not  prove 
that  many  men  will,  much  less  that  all  men  will. 

The  problem  that  we  now  have  before  us  is,  there- 
fore, simply  this  :  What  are  the  probabilities  that 
man  is  so  made  that  he  survives  death  and  is  the  pos- 
sessor of  an  endless  life  ?  Do  the  probabilities  in  favor 
of  the  doctrine  overbalance  the  probabilities  against  it, 
and  give  us  a  reasonable  ground  for  ordering  our  lives 
in  accordance  with  it  as  a  valid  truth  ?  We  propose  to 
estimate  these  probabilities  from  three  standpoints : 
the  origin  and  nature  of  man,  the  rationality  of  the 
universe,  and  the  moral  character  of  God. 

Every  human  being,  as  we  all  know,  begins  life  as 
a  single  organic  cell.  As  this  cell  develops,  a  more  or 
less  specialized  form  is  assumed.  The  vertebrate  em- 
bryo comes  into  being,  and  after  that  the  human 
embryo.  In  due  time  the  embryo  is  ready  to  be 
born  as  a  fully  developed  infant.  The  striking  thing 
about  all  these  changes  from  cell  to  embryo,  and 
from  embryo  to  infant,  is  the  fact  that  the  life  is  con- 
tinuous. Whatever  form  the  organism  takes  on  in 
passing  through  these  prenatal  stages  of  its  develop- 
ment, it  never  loses  its  vital  energy.  The  spark  of 
life,  with  which  it  started,  is  retained  to  the  end.  But 
an  equally  striking  thing  is  that  this  individual  life 
continues  after  birth  as  truly  as  before.  As  the  infant 
grows,  he  develops  into  consciousness,  and  soon  shows 
signs  of  self-consciousness.  He  recognizes  the  exis- 
tence of  other  beings  like  himself,  and  enters  into  their 
thoughts  and  feelings  and  purposes. 

As  youth  comes  on,  all  of  his  experiences  increase 


356  The  sphere  of  Religion 

and  widen.  He  puts  himself  back  into  the  time  of  pre- 
ceding generations,  back  to  the  first  appearance  of  the 
human  race  upon  this  planet,  back  to  the  first  glim- 
merings of  a  visible  universe.  But  in  it  all  he  remains 
one  and  the  same  self.  His  knowledge  has  changed. 
His  conception  of  his  own  powers  has  changed  ;  but  he 
has  not  lost  his  identity  in  any  of  his  experiences,  either 
with  his  own  past  or  with  the  past  of  his  race. 

And  so  it  is  when  the  youth  becomes  a  man  and  his 
powers  unfold  themselves  in  a  wider  sphere.  His  life 
is  continuous  in  every  stage  of  his  development,  and 
always  remains  identical  with  itself.  These  facts  con- 
cerning the  life  of  man  from  a  single  organic  cell  to  the 
complete  unfolding  of  his  powers  create  at  least  a  pre- 
sumption in  favor  of  his  survival  after  death,  for  they 
simply  afiirm  that  the  principle  of  self-identity  amid 
diversity,  so  evident  in  all  his  previous  history,  will 
not  be  annihilated  by  even  this  eventful  change. 

But  the  greatest  of  all  facts  concerning  man  is  that  in 
the  process  of  his  development  he  comes  to  be  a  person, 
the  highest  of  all  known  existences ;  and  this  fact  in 
particular  seems  to  mark  him  for  a  continuous  future 
life.  Having  attained  to  self-consciousness,  he  is  able 
to  objectify  his  ideas  and  examine  into  their  ground  or 
source.  He  can  investigate  the  universe  and  form 
some  conception  of  its  origin  and  significance.  He  can 
discuss  the  question  as  to  what  his  own  place  now  is  in 
it,  as  Huxley  and  Wallace  have  done,  and  have  his 
own  opinions  as  to  how  he  attained  this  place  and 
what  will  be  his  future  destiny,  as  John  Fiske  has  en- 
deavored to  point  out.  The  chief  aim  of  nature  evi- 
dently is  to  produce  such  a  creature  as  he  turns  out  to 
be,  an  individual  possessing  the  powers  of  reason  and 
will  to  such  a  degree  that  he  can  search  for  the  ulti- 


Human  Immortality  357 

mate  grounds  of  things,  and  apply  his  knowledge  to 
his  own  self-development. 

Nothing  is  more  apparent  as  we  rise  in  the  scale  of 
organiclife  than  the  increase  of  individuality.  In  the 
lowest  organisms  both  animal  and  vegetable  character- 
istics are  so  confused  that  biologists  are  unable  to  tell 
us  to  which  of  the  two  great  kingdoms  they  belong. 
But  this  confusion  does  not  long  exist.  As  we  ascend 
in  the  scale  of  being  we  soon  find  that  the  life  of  the 
organism  becomes  constantly  more  separate  and  distinct. 
In  its  higher  forms  no  doubt  any  longer  exists  as  to  its 
proper  classification.  This  individuality  reaches  its 
climax  among  all  the  objects  of  nature  in  man,  and 
that  is  the  reason  why  man  is  such  an  enigma  to 
science.  *">- 

For  individuality,  as  Caillard  has  so  clearly  pointed 
out,  always  has  a  double  aspect,  an  outer  and  an  inner. 
The  outer  is  open  to  scientific  investigation.  Its 
phenomena  are  capable  of  being  classified  under  their 
appropriate  heads.  But  the  inner  does  not  yield  itself 
to  this  treatment.  It  stands  by  itself.  It  is  known 
only  to  the  man  himself.  It  is  the  bane  of  science,  be- 
cause it  cannot  be  generalized.  When  ma7i  is  treated 
solely  from  the  external  point  of  view,  he  is  merely  a 
bundle  of  impressions,  a  stream  of  conscious  experi- 
ences, as  Hume  and  Huxley  regard  him.  But  this  course 
ignores  the  principal  thing  about  man,  which  is  the  in- 
ternal aspect  of  his  individuality,  his  self-knowledge, 
which  is  intuitive,  incommunicable  to  another,  stands 
out  alone  by  itself,  and  separates  him  from  all  other 
known  existences.  It  is  this  aspect  of  man  that  takes 
the  problem  of  his  future  destiny  out  of  the  sphere  of 
science,  and  takes  man  out  of  the  category  of  all  other 
organisms  open  to  our  knowledge. 


358  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

The  ground  for  the  existence  of  all  lower  organisms 
seems  to  terminate  with  death.  They  find  in  the 
visible  order  of  things  all  the  opportunity  for  develop- 
ment that  their  powers  require,  and  they  die  from  the 
natural  exhaustion  of  those  powers.  The  function  of 
man  is  different.  He  never  is  contented  with  his  at- 
tainments. He  always  knows  that  he  could  do  more 
and  better  under  more  favorable  conditions.  The 
more  highly  educated  and  cultured  he  becomes,  the 
more  vividly  does  he  realize  how  limited  he  is,  and 
how  far  he  falls  short  of  his  possibilities.  He  is  always 
looking  to  the  future,  always  forming  ideals  of  what  he 
ought  to  do  and  become. 

This  ability  to  idealize  himself  and  everything  about 
him  creates  a  presumption  that  he  will  survive  death, 
that  his  developed  but  unused  powers  will  not  be  for- 
ever annihilated  by  the  sudden  cessation  of  the  beat- 
ing of  the  heart.  Of  course  this  presumption,  derived 
from  the  origin  and  nature  of  man,  that  he  is  destined 
to  a  continuation  of  life  beyond  the  present,  is  bassd 
simply  on  the  ground  that  he  is  fitted  to  survive  the 
present.  It  does  not  establish  the  fact  of  such  survi- 
val. It  only  furnishes  a  reasonable  expectation,  which 
should  be  taken  into  consideration  in  making  our  esti- 
mate of  what  probably  is  to  be  from  what  now  is  and 
what  has  been. 

It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  this  presumption  of 
a  future  life  for  man  is  far  different  and  far  stronger 
than  the  one  often  derived  from  the  history  of  insect 
life.  When  the  butterfly  emerges  from  the  chrysalis, 
it  leaves  its  encasement  behind  it  to  be  resolved  into 
its  elements,  but  it  does  not  take  on  powers  that  cannot 
find  their  opportunity  for  a  full  development  in  its  new 
sphere.     Man,    from   the   very  fact  of  being  a   man, 


Human  Immortality  ^^g 


possesses  such  powers,  and  the  more  developed  he  is 
the  more  he  realizes  how  much  he  is  hampered  and 
curtailed  in  their  use. 

One  of  the  chief  objections  to  this  presumption  comes 
from  physiological  psychology,  and  arises  from  the 
well-established  relation  of  the  mind  to  the  brain. 
Everybody  knows  that  a  blow  on  the  head  will  destroy 
memory  and  produce  a  state  of  semi-consciousness, 
that  imbecility  is  due  to  an  arrest  of  brain  develop- 
ment, and  that  drugs  can  very  quickly  change  the 
character  of  one's  ideas  by  producing  an  overstimula- 
tion of  the  cells  of  the  brain.  Anatomists,  physiolo- 
gists, and  pathologists  agree  not  only  that  thought 
is  a  function  of  the  brain,  but  that  special  forms  of 
thought  are  connected  with  special  portions  of  the 
brain.  Our  thoughts  about  things  seen  are  connected 
with  the  occipital  lobe,  about  things  heard  with  the 
temporal  lobe,  and  when  we  speak  we  use  a  portion  of 
the  frontal  lobe.  All  intelligent  students  of  the  subject 
recognize  the  fact  that  our  minds  are  absolutely  de- 
pendent, so  far  as  we  know  them,  upon  the  brain. 
Hence  the  question  inevitably  arises,  how  can  there  be 
any  rational  ground  for  belief  in  a  life  hereafter  when 
science  has  taught  almost  every  schoolboy  the  fact 
that  the  gray  matter  of  the  brain  is  the  seat  of  all  our 
mental  powers  ? 

Admitting  in  every  detail  the  intimate  connection  of 
our  minds  with  our  bodies,  there  are  at  least  three  dif- 
ferent theories  that  may  be  taken  to  account  for  this 
relation.  One  of  these  theories  is  well  stated  and  ably 
maintained  by  K.  Duhring,  when  he  says:  ''The 
phenomena  of  consciousness  correspond,  element  for 
element,  to  the  operations  of  special  parts  of  the  brain. 
...  So  far  as  life  extends,  we  have  before  us  only  an 


360  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

organic  function,  not  a  Ding-an-sich,  or  an  expression 
of  that  imaginarj^  entity,  the  Soul.  This  fundamental 
proposition  .  .  .  carries  with  it  the  denial  of  the  im- 
mortalit}^  of  the  soul,  since  where  no  soul  exists,  its 
mortality  or  immortality  cannot  be  raised  as  a  ques- 
tion." This  ma}^  well  be  called  the  production  theory 
of  the  relation  of  mind  and  body. 

Professor  Clifford  ably  champions  the  combination 
theory  and  considers  the  theory  incompatible  with  in- 
dividual immortality.  "  Consciousness,"  he  says,  "is 
not  a  simple  thing,  but  a  complex  ;  it  is  the  combina- 
tion of  feelings  into  a  stream.  .  .  .  Inexorable  facts 
connect  our  consciousness  with  this  body  that  we 
know  ;  and  that  not  merely  as  a  whole,  but  the  parts 
of  it  are  connected  severally  with  parts  of  our  brain- 
action.  If  there  is  any  similar  connection  with  a  spir- 
itual body,  it  only  follows  that  the  spiritual  body  must 
die  with  the  natural  one." 

But  there  is  a  third  theory  of  this  relation  open  to 
our  choice,  namely  the  transmission  theory,  which 
Professor  James  has  recently  elaborated.  ' '  When  we 
think  of  the  law  that  thought  is  a  function  of  the 
brain,"  he  says,  "  we  are  not  required  to  think  of  pro- 
ductive function  only  ;  we  are  entitled  also  to  consider 
permissive  or  transmissive  function.  And  this  the  or- 
dinary psycho-physiologist  leaves  out  of  his  account. ' ' 
According  to  this  latter  view,  he  goes  on  to  say,  "our 
soul's  life,  as  we  here  know  it,  would  none  the  less  in 
literal  strictness  be  the  function  of  the  brain.  The 
brain  would  be  the  independent  variable,  the  mind 
would  vary  dependently  on  it."  As  this  permissive 
theory  fully  accounts  for  all  the  facts  as  well  as  either 
of  the  other  theories,  we  are  justified  in  adopting  it 
as  the  true  theory,  and  in  holding  that  the  inherent 


Human  Immortality  361 

probabilit}^  of  man's  continuous  existence  after  death 
is  not  set  aside  by  any  known  interdependence  of  mind 
and  body. 

But  the  probability  in  favor  of  the  continuance  of 
human  personality  after  death  is  greatly  increased 
when  we  come  to  consider  the  constitution  of  the  uni- 
verse and  the  evidences  that  exist  there  of  a  rational 
plan  or  purpose. 

Astronomy,  geology,  biology,  psychology,  and  all 
the  other  sciences,  as  well  as  philosophy  itself,  would 
perish  if  the  rationality  of  the  universe  should  be  denied 
or  seriously  doubted.  If  man  did  not  take  it  for  granted 
that  his  mind  was  rationally  constructed,  and  could, 
under  the  guidance  of  the  laws  of  thought,  detect  fal- 
lacies in  his  own  mental  processes  and  the  processes  of 
others,  he  would  never  undertake  the  formation  of  a 
science.  Nor  would  he  undertake  it  if  he  did  not  as- 
sume that  the  universe  is  capable  of  being  understood 
by  the  application  of  those  laws.  Otherwise  all  motive 
for  scientific  study  would  be  wanting.  The  very  idea 
of  making  the  attempt  to  comprehend  things  scientifi- 
cally would  never  enter  the  mind.  Every  human  being 
would  be  as  listless  and  indifierent  to  the  nobler  aspects 
of  the  universe  around  him  as  a  brute. 

The  moment  the  mind  begins  to  see  the  order  that 
reigns  in  nature,  it  must  assert  that  this  order  exists 
for  an  intelligible  end.  Now  the  assumption  of  human 
immortality  fits  in  with  this  teleological  view  of  the 
universe.  It  fills  out  that  view  and  helps  to  give  it  a 
solid  basis.  Otherwise,  the  highest  known  products 
of  the  universe — rational  beings  and  their  ideals — have 
no  permanent  place  in  the  system  of  things. 

In  assuming  a  future  life  we  merely  maintain  that 
the  same  rational  end  which  holds  good  in  this  present 


362  The  sphere  of  Religion 


world  will  hold  good  in  another  ;  that  what  we  see 
to  be  rational  before  death  will  be  rational  after.  The 
survival  of  personality  is  based  upon  the  implication 
that  the  opportunity  for  realizing  perfection  offered  in 
the  present  order  of  things  will  not  be  annihilated 
almost  at  the  very  moment  when  it  begins  to  be  attained. 
All  sound  ethics  in  our  present  life  requires  that  we 
should  regard  a  self-conscious  being  as  of  far  higher 
value  than  any  form  of  matter.  It  demands  with  no 
uncertain  voice  that  we  reverence  personality  above 
impersonal  force.  Is  it,  then,  too  much  to  say  that  no 
ethics  can  show  itself  rational  without  ascribing  at 
least  the  same  degree  of  reality  and  permanence  to  per- 
sonality as  science  everywhere  ascribes  to  mere  matter  .-* 
In  the  light  of  our  present  knowledge  the  three  great 
postulates  of  a  rational  theory  of  the  universe  are  the 
conservation  of  physical  energy,  the  indestructibility 
of  matter,  and  the  conservation  of  personality.  Each 
of  these  postulates  requires  the  other  two  to  give  us  a 
harmonious  survey  of  the  entire  field  of  investigation 
that  is  open  to  our  view. 

But  the  presumption  of  a  future  life  for  man  is  after 
all  chiefly  dependent  upon  our  conception  of  the  nature 
and  character  of  God.  The  existence  of  a  Supreme  Be- 
ing is  here  assumed,  and  so  is  also  the  view  that  this 
Supreme  Being  is  a  Person.  It  would,  of  course,  be 
too  great  a  diversion  from  our  present  purpose  to  at- 
tempt any  statement  of  the  grounds  for  these  assump- 
tions. But  granting  their  truthfulness,  it  is  not 
difficult  to  see  that  the  probability  of  human  immor- 
tality is  greatly  affected  by  the  character  of  this  Being, 
and  will  rise  or  fall  according  as  we  believe  or  disbelieve 
in  his  moral  trustworthiness. 


Huma7i  Immoj^tality  363 

The  perfect  goodness  of  the  Supreme  Being  is  evi- 
dently not  capable  of  demonstration,  but  it  is  the  only 
ground  upon  which  we  can  account  for  all  the  good  in 
the  world  and  hope  for  a  good  issue  from  all  the  evil. 
Human  life  cannot  be  understood  without  it.  If  God 
is  the  Father  of  mankind,  as  well  as  the  Creator,  the 
total  of  human  history  has  some  rational  significance. 
And  just  as  we  base  our  belief  in  the  hypotheses  of 
science  upon  the  completeness  of  their  working,  so  we 
should  assume  the  moral  perfection  or  infinite  goodness 
of  the  Supreme  Being  from  the  order  and  hope  that 
flow  from  it. 

If  we  grant  this  goodness,  then  the  endless  life  of 
man  follows  as  a  necessary  corollary.  For  if  God  is 
infinitely  wise  and  good,  he  will  not  annihilate  man 
at  death,  cutting  him  off  in  the  infancy  of  his  powers. 
The  reason  and  conscience  in  God  will  find  their 
permanent  expression  in  the  reason  and  conscience  of 
man.  God  will  seek  in  man,  possessed  to  some  extent 
of  like  powers  with  himself,  perpetual  fellowship.  For 
man  is  continually  finding  himself  able,  with  ever-in- 
creasing approximation  to  the  truth,  to  ''think  the 
thoughts  of  God  after  him." 

This  implies  that  the  human  and  divine  have,  to 
some  extent,  a  common  nature  ;  just  as  man's  power, 
partially  at  least,  to  transcend  in  thought  the  temporal 
implies  some  relation  to  the  eternal.  It  is  hard  to  see 
how  any  being  thus  capable  of  entering  into  ethical  re- 
lationship with  God  could  drop  out  of  existence  without 
occasioning  a  definite  loss  to  God,  leaving  a  void  in 
his  experience  that  no  other  being  could  fill. 

Each  finite  human  person  is  a  unique  ethical  being 
of  far  more  worth  to  God  than  he  is  to  himself.  No 
other  creature  can  take  j  ust  the  place  he  takes  in  his 


364  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

relationship  to  God.  The  value  of  man  is,  therefore, 
beyond  all  human  calculation.  For  he  is  not  only  de- 
rived from  God  and  sustained  by  him,  but  he  is  the 
reflex  of  his  own  infinite  powers.  How  can  we  pos- 
sibly regard  death  as  the  termination  of  this  relation- 
ship ?  Must  it  rather  not  be  a  mere  incident  in  the 
earthly  system  of  things,  of  no  significance  outside  the 
physical  order  with  which  alone  it  is  concerned  ? 

This  doctrine  of  the  natural  immortality  of  man  is, 
of  course,  no  new  thing  in  history.  On  the  contrary, 
it  has  been  strongly  maintained  by  many  of  the  greatest 
thinkers  of  our  race.  Plato  held  that  birth  and  death 
are  but  phases  of  the  same  life  flowing  out  from  and 
returning  to  the  fountain  of  Being,  that  our  powers  for 
discovering  the  order  of  the  world  declare  our  divine 
origin.  Origen,  one  of  the  greatest  intellects  of  his 
age,  stoutly  upholds  the  endless  life  of  man.  Death, 
he  declares,  has  no  power  over  the  soul,  for  it  existed 
before  time  in  the  invisible  world  of  spirits  and  is  kin- 
dred in  essence  to  God  himself.  Berkeley  cannot  find 
anywhere  in  this  universe  a  hint  that  death  is  the  decay 
of  spirit,  for  spirit  is  self-active,  unchanging  in  its  na- 
ture, and  absolutely  permanent.  Variation  and  decay 
are  foreign  to  its  very  essence. 

It  is  doubtful  if  a  more  solid  piece  of  reasoning  in 
favor  of  a  future  life  for  man  has  ever  been  constructed 
than  that  set  forth  by  Bishop  Butler.  He  does  not  at- 
tempt to  demonstrate  human  immortality,  but  to  point 
out  its  inherent  probability,  and  to  show  why  a  wise 
man  will  shape  his  life  in  accordance  with  it.  His  ar- 
gument is  based  upon  the  fundamental  maxim  that 
whatever  exists  now  will  presumably  exist  forever  un- 
less it  can  be  made  evident  that  something  fatal  to  that 


Human  Im^nortality  365 

existence  stands  in  the  way.  If  it  cannot  be  shown 
that  death  is  the  destruction  of  the  soul,  the  fact  that 
the  soul  exists  now  constitutes  a  strong  probability 
that  nothing  will  destroy  it,  and  that  it  is  endowed 
with  an  endless  life. 

To  Kant  the  sublimest  fact  in  the  consciousness  of 
man  is  duty.  In  it  he  finds  the  explanation  of  human 
life  and  the  pledge  of  immortality.  Duty  requires  per- 
fect conformity  to  the  moral  law,  but  perfect  conformity 
in  this  life  is  an  impossibility.  All  that  can  be  done 
is  to  start  toward  the  goal  which  will  require  an  endless 
future  for  its  complete  realization.  But  the  Highest 
who  gave  the  law  and  commands  man  to  attain  it  will 
see  that  the  means  are  provided,  and  will  confer  upon 
him  an  everlasting  life. 

Such  are  a  few  of  the  utterances  upon  this  subject  by 
the  leading  minds  of  the  past,  and  the  matter  has  by 
no  means  been  neglected  by  the  thinkers  of  the  pres- 
ent. Indeed,  within  the  past  few  years  in  our  own 
country,  to  say  nothing  of  other  lands,  many  of  our 
ablest  intellectual  leaders— Roy ce,  Gordon,  Fiske, 
and  others— have  given  the  matter  their  profoundest 
thought,  and  there  is  a  substantial  agreement  among 
them  that  man  is  destined  to  an  immortal  life.  The 
more  we  know  of  this  present  life  the  more  vivid  and 
definite  does  this  conviction  come  to  be.  It  has  always 
been  true  that  Hfe  has  brought  immortality  to  light 
just  in  proportion  as  it  has  come  to  realize  its  own 
dignity  and  put  a  just  estimate  upon  its  own  worth. 

The  doctrine  of  human  immortality  in  the  past  has 
often  been  associated  with  grossly  sensual  conceptions 
and  radically  false  ideals.  Some,  in  their  extreme  ad- 
vocacy of  "  other  worldliness,"  have  fallen  little  short 


366  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

of  making  earth  a  hell,  in  order  to  merit  heaven.  The 
notion  of  a  future  life  commonly  entertained  in  our  day- 
is  derived  from  the  dark  ages,  and  partakes  of  the  nar- 
rowness and  ignorance  of  man  and  nature  characteristic 
of  that  period.  Enlightened  people  of  the  present  gen- 
eration, with  their  ever-broadening  field  of  knowledge, 
have  little  use  for  such  a  view.  Moreover,  it  is  unques- 
tionably true  that  our  actual  duties  lie  in  our  present 
environment,  and  anything  is  a  blessing  that  will  keep 
man  sufiiciently  in  the  dark  regarding  his  future  des- 
tiny to  force  him  to  attend  properly  to  his  daily  terres- 
trial tasks.  What  can  be  more  unwise  and  futile  than 
to  spend  our  time  in  preaching  to  the  immortal  souls 
of  men,  while  we  do  nothing  to  relieve  the  distress  and 
anguish  of  their  mortal  bodies  ?  In  a  certain  sense  it 
is  true  that  if  we  live  up  to  the  demands  of  the  Golden 
Rule  in  the  life  that  now  is,  the  future  will  take  care 
of  itself. 

But,  after  all,  how  can  we  properly  conform  to  this 
rule  without  some  knowledge  of  the  true  range  and 
bearing  of  the  present  life  ?  If  the  existence  of  our- 
selves and  of  all  other  persons,  past,  present,  and  to 
come,  is  limited  to  the  world  that  now  is,  that  fact 
must  vastly  affect  our  conception  of  our  present  duties. 
A  thousand  and  one  enterprises  for  the  advancement 
of  mankind  in  knowledge  and  virtue  will  not  be  en- 
tered upon  at  all  if  this  is  taken  as  our  standpoint. 
We  could  not  tolerate  the  slow  progress  and  bitter  dis- 
appointments that  we  know  would  inevitably  be  our  lot. 

The  unrest  and  overeagerness  for  results  which  now 
often  impede  individual  development  and  retard  the 
cause  of  social  regeneration,  would  be  immensely 
lessened  if  more  emphasis  were  put  upon  the  larger 
hope,  the  wider  outlook.     The  gloom  of  our  personal 


Hummi  Immortality  ^.tl 


bereavements,  and  the  shock  that  comes  with  the  first 
consciousness  of  the  decay  of  our  natural  powers,  the 
sufferings  of  the  incurably  diseased,  the  horrors  en- 
dured by  the  victims  of  war  and  pestilence,  and  the 
long  catalogue  of  ills  due  to  the  ignorance  and  the 
neglect,  the  oppression  and  the  despair,  of  mankind 
would  not  cut  the  nerve  of  manly  endeavor  half  so  fre- 
quently as  they  now  do,  if  eternity,  instead  of  time, 
were  taken  as  our  point  of  view. 

The  apathy  often  apparent  in  the  Christian  church 
concerning  -the  life  everlasting  "  is  not  due  so  much 
to  histoncal  criticism  of  the  ground  of  its  belief,  or  the 
lack  of  scientific  proof  of  its  position,  as  to  the  low 
ideal  that  is  generally  taken  of  what  that  life  is.  When 
we  think  of  it  as  we  have  a  right  to  think  of  it,  not 
simply  as  a  condition  of  freedom  from  the  cares  and 
sorrows  and  turmoils  of  the  world,  a  state  of  merely 
passive  contemplation,  but  one  where  all  healthful  and 
normal  capacities  will  be  utilized,  where  whatever  of 
intellectual  and  emotional  and  moral  power  we  pos- 
sess will  be  completely  and  joyfully  employed,  we  will 
impart  a  dignity  and  significance  to  the  present  life 
that  cannot  :fail  to  be  the  source  of  untold  inspiration 
to  manly  effort,  and  a  perpetual  foundation  of  mental 
serenity  and  peace. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THK  PRKSKNT-DAY  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD. 

John  Fiske,  in  his  little  book  on  The  Idea  of  God, 
writing  of  the  different  conceptions  of  the  Deity  that 
have  prevailed  at  various  times  in  the  course  of  histor>% 
gives  us  in  some  detail  his  own  first  conception  of  him. 
"  I  imagined,"  he  says,  "  a  narrow  office  just  over  the 
zenith,  with  a  tall  standing  desk  running  lengthwise, 
upon  which  lay  several  open  ledgers  bound  in  coarse 
leather.  There  was  no  roof  over  this  office,  and  the 
walls  rose  scarcely  five  feet  from  the  floor,  so  that  a 
person  standing  at  the  desk  could  look  out  over  the 
whole  world.  There  were  two  persons  at  the  desk, 
and  one  of  them,  a  tall  slender  man,  of  aquiline  features, 
wearing  spectacles,  with  a  pen  in  his  hand  and  one 
behind  his  ear — was  God.  The  other,  whose  appear- 
ance I  do  not  distinctly  recall,  was  an  attendant  angel. 
Both  were  diligently  watching  the  deeds  of  men  and 
recording  them  in  the  ledgers." 

Something  like  this  childish  conception  of  God 
dominates  the  thinking  of  all  undeveloped  people,  and 
even  the  early  Christians  were  much  affected  by  it. 
For  they  could  not  help  being  immensely  influenced 
by  the  form  of  government  with  which  they  came  in 
daily  contact.  Almost  without  exception  they  came 
to  regard  God  as  a  great  celestial  monarch.  In  the 
Roman  system,  with  which  alone  they  were  familiar, 
the  Emperor  was  the  mysterious  source  of  all  authority 

368 


The  Present-Day  Conception  of  God    369 

and  power.  He  ruled  by  arbitrary  fiats.  These  he 
first  made  known  to  his  immediate  subordinates,  and 
they  in  turn  proclaimed  them  to  their  lieutenants, 
whose  mission  it  was  to  communicate  them  to  the 
people  at  large  and  see  to  it  that  they  were  implicitly 
obeyed. 

When  the  Roman  empire  went  to  pieces  its  place 
was  taken  in  almost  every  particular  by  the  Roman 
Church,  the  officials  of  the  former  being  supplanted  by 
the  officials  of  the  latter  ;  at  the  same  time  the  leaders 
of  the  church  took  upon  themselves  even  more  ex- 
tended powers.  Long  before  the  beginning  of  the 
Middle  Ages  the  ecclesiastical  system  had  reached 
such  a  degree  of  development  and  had  secured  such 
a  strong  hold  upon  the  people  that  practically  no  one 
thought  of  approaching  God  except  through  a  long 
line  of  church  officials  reaching  from  the  curate  up  to 
the  Pope. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  fifth  century  Augustine 
came  into  prominence  in  the  church,  and  his  superior 
abilities  almost  at  once  placed  him  in  the  foremost 
rank  as  the  mouthpiece  of  the  system.  Hence  it  is  to 
him  that  we  are  to  look  for  the  medieval  conception  of 
God  and  the  ideas  of  man  and  the  world  that  are  con- 
nected with  it.  Augustine' s  two  great  books,  The  Con- 
fessions and  The  City  of  God,  are  the  chief  sources  of 
our  knowledge  of  his  views.  The  former  was  written 
about  400  and  the  second  completed  in  426.  From  the 
study  of  these  books  we  find  that  Augustine  thought 
of  God  as  a  great  Imperial  Czar,  who  after  an  infinitely 
long  period  of  inaction  determined  to  create  a  world. 
This  he  did  some  four  thousand  years  before  the 
Christian  era,  and  made  it  out  of  nothing  in  six  natu- 
ral days. 
24 


3  70  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

He  first  created  the  angels.  They  are  the  "  light " 
referred  to  in  the  Scriptures  as  God's  first  act.  Some 
of  them  immediately  rebelled  against  him  and  set  up 
a  rival  kingdom  under  their  leader  Satan.  Then  he 
created  the  material  universe,  and  when  it  was  finished 
everything  in  it  was  essentially  just  as  it  is  at  present. 
Adam,  the  first  man,  he  made  out  of  the  dust  of  the 
earth,  and  endowed  him  with  every  conceivable  per- 
fection both  of  mind  and  body.  But  Adam  sinned  and 
God  cast  him  out  of  the  garden  in  which  he  had  placed 
him,  and  left  him  to  care  for  himself. 

Before  doing  it,  however,  God  cursed  the  ground, 
and  caused  it  to  bring  forth  thorns  and  thistles,  so  that 
Adam  should  be  compelled  to  earn  his  bread  by  hard 
labor  until  the  time  came  for  him  to  return  to  the 
dust  out  of  which  he  had  been  formed.  Voluntarily 
depraved  and  justly  condemned  for  disobeying  the 
commands  of  his  Maker,  Adam  begot  depraved  and 
condemned  children.  For,  as  Augustine  argues,  we 
were  all  in  him,  when  "all  of  us  "  consisted  of  him 
alone  ;  and  as  his  nature  was  stained  by  sin,  God  gave 
him  and  all  his  posterity  over  to  corruption  and  death, 
just  as  any  earthly  potentate  would  do  in  case  a  sub- 
ject rebelled  against  him  and  refused  to  conform  his 
conduct  to  the  behests  of  his  lord. 

But  God  was  not  to  have  his  purpose  in  creating 
a  world  thus  summarily  brought  to  naught.  He  deter- 
mined to  institute  a  system  of  grace  by  which  he  could 
withdraw  a  portion  of  the  human  race  from  the  general 
ruin  ;  and  to  do  this  he  sent  his  Son  into  the  w^orld  to 
pay  the  needed  ransom.  As  man  had  had  nothing  to  do 
with  effecting  this  reconciliation,  the  selection  of  those 
who  were  to  be  benefited  by  it  rested  solely  with  God. 
There  thus  arose  alongside  of  the  earthly  state  of  man 


The  Present-Day  Co7iception  of  God    3  7 


the  istate  or  city  of  God.  Those  in  the  latter  were 
to  reign  eternally  with  God,  while  those  in  the  former 
were  to  suffer  eternal  punishment  with  the  Devil. 

Augustine  combats  with  vigor  those  who  hold  that 
God  would  be  acting  unjustly  to  punish  all  men  forever 
regardless  of  their  efforts  to  love  and  serve  him.  On 
the  contrary  he  maintains  that  God  is  perfectly  justified 
in  conferring  his  "irresistible  grace"  upon  those  he 
chooses  without  reference  to  their  present  conduct,  as 
monuments  of  his  mercy,  while  he  leaves  the  majority 
to  eternal  damnation  as  the  monuments  of  his  justice. 

The  church,  says  Augustine,  prays  for  all  men,  but 
if  she  knew  with  certainty  who  the  persons  are  that 
are  predestined  by  God  "to  go  into  the  eternal  fire 
with  the  Devil ' '  she  would  no  more  pray  for  them  than 
for  the  Devil. 

Although  this  conception  of  God  as  a  Celestial  Czar 
advocated  by  Augustine  was  generally  accepted  by  the 
recognized  leaders  of  the  church  during  the  Middle 
Ages,  yet  Anselm,  the  famous  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, some  six  centuries  after  the  time  of  Augustine, 
did  much  to  strengthen  it  by  his  book  entitled.  Cur 
Deiis  Homo  ?  or  Why  did  God  Become  Man  f 

In  this  book  he  assumes  practically  all  of  Augus- 
tine's positions,  but  objects  to  the  view  held  before  his 
time  by  such  leaders  as  Origen,  Ambrosius,  Leo  the 
Great,  and  many  others,  that  God  sent  his  Son  into  the 
world  as  a  ransom  to  the  Devil.  His  own  view  was 
that  incarnation  follows  of  necessity,  if  God  adopts  a 
method  of  salvation  at  all.  For  sin  against  God  is 
an  offence  of  infinite  degree  and  demands  an  infinite 
satisfaction. 

In  spite  of  his  goodness  God  cannot  pardon  sin 
without  compounding  his  honor.      He  must,  therefore, 


372  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

either  destroy  humanity  entirely  or  inflict  upon  it  the 
eternal  punishment  of  hell.  There  is  only  one  way  for 
God  to  escape  from  this  dilemma,  and  that  is  by  taking 
upon  himself  this  punishment.  For  man  is  a  finite 
being  and  incapable  of  rendering  to  God  an  infinite 
satisfaction.  However  long  he  might  be  punished  it 
would  all  be  of  no  avail.  If,  therefore,  God  is  to  save 
at  all,  he  must  become  man  in  Christ,  and  Christ  must 
sufier  and  die  as  our  substitute.  Christ  having  thus 
laid  up  a  storehouse  of  infinite  merit  and  acquired  the 
right  to  a  corresponding  recompense,  God  assigns  this 
recompense  to  that  part  of  the  human  race  that  was  to 
be  forgiven  and  restored  to  divine  favor. 

The  first  noticeable  signs  of  any  discontent  with 
these  medieval  views  of  God  appeared  a  few  genera- 
tions after  the  time  of  Anselm  in  a  work  published  by 
Peter  I^ombard,  Bishop  of  Paris,  entitled.  Four  Books 
of  Sentences.  The  work  was  chiefly  a  collection  of 
quotations  from  the  church  Fatheis,  but  in  some  of  his 
commentaries  on  the  doctrines  laid  down  in  these  quo- 
tations, the  author  naively  propounded  such  questions 
as  the  following :  If  God  made  heaven  and  earth  at 
the  same  time  out  of  nothing,  where  was  he  before 
there  was  any  heaven  ?  Could  God  have  made  things 
better  than  they  are  ?  What  kind  of  bodies  do  angels 
have,  and  in  what  form  do  they  appear  to  men  ?  Why 
was  Eve  taken  from  the  side  of  Adam  and  not  from 
some  other  part  of  his  body?  Why  was  she  made 
while  Adam  was  asleep  ?  Would  all  men  live  forever 
on  this  earth  if  Adam  had  not  sinned?  Would  chil- 
dren have  come  into  the  world  full-grown  as  Adam  and 
Eve  did  ?  Why  did  not  God  incarnate  himself  in  a 
woman  instead  of  a  man  ? 

No  real  attempt  was  made  by  lyombard  to  answer 


The  Present-Day  Conception  of  God    373 

these  questions,  and  the  raising  of  them  does  not  appear 
to  have  shaken  his  faith  or  that  of  his  readers,  so  far  as 
we  know,  in  the  conception  of  God  as  a  Celestial  Czar, 
nor  did  all  the  upheavals  of  the  Reformation  have  any 
effect  in  that  direction.  For  the  Protestants  did  not 
differ  from  the  Catholics  on  this  matter.  The  only 
question  between  them  was  :  What  is  the  source  of  our 
authority  for  the  view  ?  The  one  said  the  church  and 
the  Bible,  and  the  other  looked  to  the  Bible  alone. 

It  was  not  till  the  last  century  that  any  real  opposi- 
tion to  the  medieval  conception  of  God  appeared  in 
history,  and  then  not  in  the  ranks  of  the  church,  but 
from  a  source  quite  outside  of  its  sphere  of  influence. 

The  first  attack  upon  this  conception  came  from  the 
students  of  geology.  They  began  to  investigate  the 
question  whether  God  actually  made  the  earth  in  six 
natural  days  about  four  thousand  years  before  the 
Christian  era.  There  is  little  or  no  doubt  in  our  time 
but  that  the  earth  very  gradually  came  into  its  present 
form  and  has  been  in  existence  many  times  six  thousand 
years.  The  arguments  for  this  view  are  derived  chiefly 
from  two  sources,  the  facts  now  known  concerning  the 
cooling  of  the  earth  to  reach  its  present  status,  and 
those  concerning  the  changes  that  have  occurred  in 
the  heat  of  the  sun.  For  the  sun  and  all  its  planets 
were  once  one  common  mass  of  gaseous  matter,  and  the 
process  of  separation  and  of  becoming  what  they  now 
are  must  be  accounted  for. 

G.  K.  Gilbert,  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey, 
has  well  expressed  the  probable  facts  in  the  matter. 
''Estimates  of  the  earth's  age,"  he  says,  "based  on 
geological  data  have  ranged  from  ten  or  twenty  million 
years  to  as  many  billion  years.  I^imits  derived  from 
the  refrigeration  of  the  earth  range  from  twenty  million 


374  'r^^  Sphere  of  Religiojt 

to  four  hundred  million  years.  The  limiting  period 
determined  by  the  sun  is  estimated  at  from  ten  to 
twenty  million  years." 

The  next  attack  upon  the  medieval  conception  of 
God  came  from  anthropology.  Down  to  a  very  recent 
period  it  was  universally  believed  that  God  made  man 
in  the  full  perfection  of  all  his  powers,  that  he  first  ap- 
peared in  Central  Asia,  and  that  the  entire  human  race 
has  descended  from  one  pair.  Now  many  think  that 
the  human  race  has  arisen  from  many  centres,  and 
some  careful  students  would  claim  Southern  Europe  or 
Northern  Africa  as  the  oldest  of  them  all.  President 
Warren  of  Boston  Universit}^  has  written  an  able  book 
entitled.  The  North  Pole — The  Cradle  of  the  Human 
Race, 

The  exact  place  of  man's  first  appearance  is  still 
unsettled,  but  few  if  any  investigators  of  to-day  take 
exception  to  the  statement  of  J.  W.  Powell,  late  Director 
of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  when  he  says: 
"  Investigations  in  archaeology  have  now  made  it  clear 
that  man  was  distributed  throughout  the  habitable 
world  at  some  very  remote  time  or  times  in  the  lowest 
stage  of  human  culture,  when  men  employed  stone 
tools  and  other  agencies  of  industry  of  a  like  lowly 
character,  and  that  from  this  rude  condition  men  have 
progressed  in  culture  everywhere,  but  some  to  a  much 
greater  degree  than  others.  The  linguistic  evidence 
comes  in  to  sustain  the  conclusions  reached  by  archaeol- 
ogy ;  for  a  study  of  the  languages  of  the  world  leads 
to  the  conclusion  that  they  were  developed  in  a  multi- 
plicity of  centres. ' ' 

The  biology  of  to-day  is  strongly  opposed  to  the  medi- 
eval view.  It  teaches  us  that  all  organisms  are  made  of 
a  combination  of  cells  and  have  grown  up  from  a  single 


The  Present-Day  Conception  of  God     375 

microscopic  cell.  It  cannot  admit  that  God  made  man 
de  novo  out  of  the  dust  of  the  earth,  but  it  holds  thatman 
has  ascended  from  the  lower  animals  and  has  come  into 
existence  after  untold  ages  of  the  existence  of  other 
forms  of  life  upon  this  planet. 

The  recent  study  of  history  has  also  contributed  to 
show  the  defects  of  this  view.  God  has  not  confined 
himself  to  the  Jewish  people  alone .  Other  nations  great 
and  mighty  have  existed  on  this  earth,  such  as  the 
Egyptians,  the  Greeks,  and  the  Romans,  and  have  per- 
formed a  useful  mission.  Plato  and  Aristotle  have  con- 
tributed to  the  civilization  of  the  world  as  truly  as  Moses 
and  Isaiah.  God  has  manifested  himself  in  some  degree 
among  all  peoples,  and  has  not  left  any  of  them  utterly 
without  a  witness  of  his  existence  and  care. 

Modern  astronomy  in  particular  requires  a  different 
conception  of  God  to  account  for  its  extraordinary  reve- 
lations. Our  planet  is  now  known  to  be  ''  but  a  speck 
in  the  order  of  creation,  and  every  other  science  besides 
astronomy  is  concerned  with  what  is  going  on  upon  this 
little  speck  of  matter. ' '  The  discoveries  made  possible 
by  the  telescope  are  extending  the  universe  step  by  step 
into  the  domains  of  infinity.  It  is  now  established  that 
although  the  orbit  the  earth  makes  in  its  annual  jour- 
ney around  the  sun  is  one  hundred  and  eighty-six  mil- 
lion miles  in  diameter,  it  would  hardly  be  noticed  when 
seen  from  the  nearest  fixed  star.  Then,  too,  each  of  the 
innumerable  hosts  of  fixed  stars  is  not  merely  a  point 
of  light- in  the  heavens,  but  a  sun  with  its  possible 
retinue  of  inhabited  planets. 

The  famous  astronomer  Prof.  Simon  Newcomb  sums 
up  a  description  of  the  stellar  universe  by  saying  :  "  It 
is  composed  of  an  unknown  host  of  stars,  certainly 
more  than  fifty  million,  mostly  scattered  in  irregular 


376  The  sphere  of  Religion 

aggregations  forming  the  Milky  Way,  while  many  are 
aggregated  in  yet  closer  clusters,  some  of  which  are 
situated  within  the  Milky  Way  and  some  without  it, 
and  of  a  number  of  enormous  masses  of  incandescent 
gases  situated  at  unknown  distances.  Our  sun  is 
simply  one  of  these  fifty  million  stars,  without,  so  far 
as  we  know,  any  mark  to  distinguish  him  among  his 
fellows.  He  is  rather  smaller  than  the  average  ;  re- 
moved to  one  million  times  his  present  distance,  which 
is  probably  the  average  distance  of  the  stars  of  the  first 
magnitude,  he  would  shine  only  as  a  star  of  the  third 
or  fourth  magnitude." 

But  not  only  so.  Spectrum  analysis  teaches  us  that 
all  this  vast  collection  of  worlds  is  composed  of  essen- 
tially the  same  elements  as  exist  upon  the  earth,  and 
that  essentially  the  same  combinations  of  these  elements 
are  taking  place  in  other  parts  of  this  universe  as  take 
place  here.  Consequently  we  have  every  right  to  claim 
that  the  same  forces  are  at  work  to-day  as  have  been  at 
work  in  all  tbe  countless  ages  of  the  past ;  that  creation 
is  going  on  to-day  just  as  truly  and  just  as  extensively 
as  at  any  time  in  the  past.  All  that  we  know  about  the 
universe  leads  us  to  assert  that  it  is  one,  and  that  the 
same  force  pervades  it  all.  We  have  no  data  for  hold- 
ing that  there  ever  was  a  time  when  a  Celestial  Czar, 
enthroned  in  the  heavens,  created  matter  and  force  out 
of  nothing.  God  has  not  set  up  a  system  of  laws  to 
govern  the  universe,  leaving  them  to  operate  themselves 
with  here  and  there  an  occasional  interference. 

As  John  Fiske  well  states  it :  "  Paley's  simile  of  the 
watch  is  no  longer  applicable  to  such  a  world  as  this. 
It  must  be  replaced  by  the  simile  of  the  flower.  The 
universe  is  not  a  machine,  but  an  organism,  with  an  in- 
dwelling principle  of  life.     It  was  not  made,  but  it  has 


The  Present-Day  Conception  of  God    377 

grown."  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  this  change  in 
our  conception  of  the  universe  marks  the  greatest  revo- 
lution that  has  ever  occurred  in  the  history  of  human 
thought,  and  demands  a  corresponding  change  in  our 
conception  of  God  if  we  are  going  to  make  it  fit  in  with 
present  knowledge. 

One  of  the  chief  differences  between  the  medieval 
conception  of  God  and  that  of  to-day  concerns  the 
sources  of  the  data  out  of  which  it  is  to  be  formed.  In 
medieval  times  it  was  held  that  all  our  knowledge  of 
God  came  through  a  supernatural  revelation.  It  was 
assumed  that  man  had  no  way  of  finding  out  anything 
about  him  ;  and  that  unless  God  himself  should  choose 
to  come  in  and  make  himself  known  to  him,  he  would 
perish  in  utter  ignorance  of  the  existence  and  powers  of 
such  a  Being.  But  God  did  choose,  it  was  claimed,  to 
reveal  himself  exclusively  to  the  fathers  of  the  Jewish 
people,  and  through  them  this  knowledge  has  been 
transmitted  to  us. 

The  view  of  to-day  is  that  we  get  our  ideas  of  God 
from  what  we  know  of  the  universe  about  us,  and  from 
what  we  know  about  ourselves.  And  the  data  that  have 
been  accumulated  during  the  last  few  generations  on 
these  matters  have  been  so  vast  that  we  can  well  say 
with  Dr.  Edward  Caird  i^The  Evolutioji  of  Religion, 
vol.  i.,  p.  138)  that  "human  knowledge  will  belie  all 
its  past  history,  if  the  new  light  upon  man's  relation  to 
the  world  and  to  his  fellow-men,  which  science  is  every 
day  bringing  to  us,  does  not  give  occasion  to  a  new 
solution  or  interpretation  of  the  idea  of  God." 

From  the  study  of  the  universe  we  learn  that  the 
various  forms  of  nature  have  come  into  existence  one 
after  another  through  the  workings  of  an  all-pervading 
and  persistent  Force.     The  harmony  of  nature  is  not 


378  The  Sphere  of  Religion 


something  imposed  upon  it  by  some  power  outside  of 
itself,  but  is  inherent  in  its  very  being.  The  concep- 
tion of  matter  as  inert  or  dead  is  entirely  outgrown. 
Everything  is  quivering  with  energy,  and  all  the  mo- 
tions of  matter  are  manifestations  of  Force  to  which  the 
notion  of  beginning  and  end  can  in  no  way  be  applied. 
The  modern  doctrines  of  the  indestructibility  of  matter 
and  the  continuity  of  motion  are  simply  two  aspects 
of  the  fundamental  truth  of  the  persistency  of  Force. 

The  most  common,  but  at  the  same  time  most  im- 
pressive illustration  that  can  be  given  of  this  unity  of 
nature,  as  every  one  admits  who  stops  to  reflect  upon 
the  matter,  is  the  luminiferous  ether.  For  one  can  no 
longer  talk  of  empty  space.  Every  portion  of  space  is 
filled  with  a  "  cosmic  jelly  "  of  almost  infinite  elasticity 
and  hardness.  Yet  it  does  not  interfere  in  any  percep- 
tible way  with  the  motions  of  even  the  most  insignifi- 
cant of  the  heavenly  bodies.  Undulations  that  we  call 
heat,  hght,  magnetism,  electricity,  and  the  like,  radi- 
ating from  millions  of  centre  points,  run  along  this 
substance,  crossing  each  other  in  every  conceivable 
direction  ;  and  although  this  has  been  going  on  for- 
ever, so  far  as  we  know,  we  have  no  evidence  that  the 
harmony  of  the  motions  in  the  universe  has  ever  been 
in  the  least  disturbed  thereby. 

Now  all  these  considerations  should  have  a  funda- 
mental influence  upon  our  conception  of  God.  We 
should  see  that  this  Infinite  Eternal  Energy  from 
which  all  things  proceed,  and  which  forever  sustains 
everything  that  is,  and  keeps  each  part  of  the  universe 
in  perfect  accord  with  every  other  part,  is  a  primary 
factor  in  this  conception.  We  should  freely  admit  with 
Origen  and  Cousin  that  we  have  no  other  way  of  think- 
ing about  the  relation  of  God  to  the  world  than  by 


The  Present'Day  Conception  of  God     379 

aflfirming,  as  they  did,  that  "  God  is  no  more  without 
a  world  than  a  world  is  without  God. ' ' 

Probably  no  writer  more  clearly  and  concisely  ex- 
presses this  truth  as  seen  in  the  light  of  present 
knowledge  than  Herbert  Spencer  when  he  says  :  '  *  Amid 
the  mysteries  which  become  the  more  mysterious  the 
more  they  are  thought  about,  there  will  remain  this 
one  absolute  certainty,  that  we  are  ever  in  the  presence 
of  an  Infinite  Kternal  Energy  from  which  all  things 
proceed."  This  conception  of  God  prevents  us  from 
regarding  him  as  the  great  First  Cause  ;  for  he  is  the 
one  without  whom  nothing  is  and  with  whom  every- 
thing is.  He  is  the  only  Cause,  and  there  are  in  nature 
no  secondary  causes. 

The  ancient  Hebrews  were  literally  correct  in  say- 
ing :  "  He  gathereth  the  waters  of  the  sea  together  as  a 
heap.  He  layeth  up  the  depth  in  storehouses.  He 
causeth  the  grass  to  grow  for  the  cattle,  and  herb  for 
the  service  of  man.  He  looketh  on  the  earth  and  it 
trembleth.  He  toucheth  the  hills  and  they  smoke." 
They  went  to  the  very  bottom  of  the  subject,  though 
perhaps  they  were  far  wiser  than  they  knew,  when 
they  spoke  of  God  as  the  one  "who  coverest  thyself 
with  light  as  with  a  garment ;  who  stretchest  out  the 
heavens  like  a  curtain ;  who  layeth  the  beams  of  his 
chambers  in  the  waters  ;  who  maketh  the  clouds  his 
chariot ;  who  walketh  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind." 

Every  act  of  nature  is  the  direct  act  of  God.  God  is 
in  nature  and  in  all  of  it.  Its  laws  are  simply  his  ways 
of  working.  God  is,  therefore,  never  to  be  thought  of 
as  afar  off.  He  is  present  in  every  stone  and  leaf  and 
flower  at  every  moment.  As  Tennyson  says  in  his 
poem  on  "The  Higher  Pantheism  "  :  "The  sun,  the 
moon,  the  stars,  the  seas,  the  hills,  and  the  plains,  Are 


380  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

not  these,  O  soul,  the  vision  of  Him  who  reigns?  .  .  . 
Closer  is  He  than  breathing,  and  nearer  than  hands  or 
feet." 

There  is,  therefore,  no  room  for  a  distinction  in  this 
universe  between  the  natural  and  the  supernatural. 
We  can  apply  either  word  to  all  that  takes  place,  but 
not  both  words.  The  truth  requires  us  to  assert  that 
all  the  phenomena  of  nature  are  of  the  same  sort.  God 
is  in  all  phenomena,  and  if  there  were  no  God  we 
should  have  no  phenomena.  God  is  all  the  time 
changing  the  forms  of  his  manifestation.  The  phe- 
nomena of  yesterday  are  not  the  phenomena  of  to-day. 
In  other  words,  God  never  stops  creating.  As  Lyman 
Abbott  keeps  reiterating,  every  day  is  a  creating  day, 
and  every  new  leaf  or  sprig  or  flower  is  a  new  creation. 

From  the  history  of  the  development  of  life  upon 
this  planet,  and  especially  from  the  life  of  man,  we 
learn  that  there  is  another  element  that  should  also 
enter  into  our  conception  of  God,  namely,  that  the 
Infinite  Eternal  Energy  in  the  universe  is  a  Power  that 
makes  for  righteousness.  There  is  a  progress  in  the 
events  that  are  constantly  going  on,  and  this  progress 
shows  a  righteous  plan  or  purpose  about  us.  This  is 
clearly  discernible  in  the  arrangements  nature  has  made 
for  the  production  of  higher  forms  of  life  out  of  lower. 
All  the  chief  stages  of  this  progress  are  now  depicted 
with  such  detail  that  he  who  runs  may  read,  and  the 
grand  consummation  towards  which  all  organic  evolu- 
tion is  tending  is  the  production  of  the  highest  form  of 
psychical  life.  This  has  gone  on,  it  is  true,  through 
countless  ages  of  toil  and  trouble,  but  it  has  now  pro- 
gressed so  far  that  the  glory  of  the  end  or  purpose 
admits  of  no  reasonable  doubt. 

Under  the  sway  of  natural  law  those  organisms  have 


The  Preseiit-Day  Conception  of  God     381 

survived  that  were  fitted  to  bring  about  what  we  now 
know  to  be  a  fact,  namely,  that  higher  and  higher  in- 
dividuals appeared  upon  the  scene  of  action,  endowed 
with  capacities  for  an  increasingly  varied  and  richer 
Hfe.  All  the  dramas  of  life  and  death  that  took  place 
during  the  ages  of  geologic  history  led  up  to  the 
appearance  of  such  organisms,  so  that,  as  another 
expresses  it,  "the  whole  scheme  was  teleological,  and 
each  single  act  of  natural  selection  had  a  teleological 
meaning."  The  existence  of  an  end  or  plan  or  pur- 
pose in  the  universe  was  never  so  evident  as  in  the 
light  of  present  knowledge.  It  is,  however,  only  the 
form  of  the  argument  for  a  design  in  the  universe  that 
has  changed  in  recent  times,  not  the  argument  itself. 
The  old  natural  tlieology  represented  by  Paley  insisted, 
as  we  have  seen,  upon  the  simile  of  the  watch.  Mod- 
ern thought  supplants  that  with  the  simile  of  the 
flower,  which  makes  the  argument  for  design  a  thou- 
sand-fold more  wonderful  and  impressive.  For  it 
depends  chiefly  for  its  cogency  upon  the  phenomena 
of  life. 

Never  before  in  history  has  the  reasonableness  in  the 
world  been  so  evident  as  it  is  now.  For  never  before 
has  there  been  such  a  flood  of  light  thrown  upon  the 
origin  and  nature  of  man  as  now.  His  existence  is 
now  seen  to  be  due  to  a  change  in  the  working  of 
natural  selection,  as  John  Fiske  has  so  clearly  pointed 
out.  Before  his  time  physical  variations  w^ere  selected 
and  psychical  variations  ignored.  Then  came  a  time 
when  the  situation  changed.  Psychical  variations 
were  selected  and  physical  variations  ignored.  The 
long  infancy  of  man  made  the  family  possible,  and  the 
family  led  to  human  society  with  the  beginnings  of 
political,  moral,  and  religious  ideas  and  sentiments. 


382  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

Man  with  these  ideas  and  sentiments  became  a  dif- 
ferent being  from  all  lower  creatures,  not  only  in  degree 
but  kind,  and  capable  of  a  progress  to  which  we  can 
set  no  conceivable  limits.  All  the  forms  of  life  below 
man  use  their  energy  to  develop  their  physical  powers. 
They  always  carry  out  the  motto  :  Eat  and  drink  for 
the  glory  of  the  body.  With  man  began  the  process  of 
using  the  body  for  the  life  of  the  soul.  He  is  capable 
of  following  the  injunction,  Whether  ye  eat  or  drink, 
do  all  for  the  glory  of  the  spirit.  He  can,  therefore, 
develop  to  ever-increasing  degrees  of  perfection.  Thus 
man  is  seen  to  be  the  crown  and  glory  of  the  universe, 
and  his  moral  discipline  its  ultimate  ground  or  end. 
In  other  words,  the  universe  is  so  constructed  that  a 
rational  plan  dominates  in  it.  The  power  that  it  re- 
veals makes  for  righteousness.  And  we  have  no  other 
way  of  properly  accounting  for  this  power  than  by 
looking  upon  it  as  one  of  the  essential  elements  in  our 
conception  of  God. 

No  people  ever  had  such  an  appreciation  of  this 
power  in  the  universe  that  makes  for  righteousness,  as 
the  ancient  Hebrews.  ' '  The  word  righteousness, ' '  as 
Matthew  Arnold  has  well  pointed  out,  ' '  is  the  master- 
word  of  the  Old  Testament."  And  he  might  have 
added  it  is  the  master-word  of  the  New  Testament  also. 
The  Old  Testament  writers  are  constantly  exhorting 
their  readers  to  adopt  ''the  way  of  the  righteous." 
Sinners  shall  not  stand  "in  the  congregation  of  the 
righteous."  Instead  of  observing  meaningless  cere- 
monials as  others  did  around  them,  they  were  ex- 
horted to  "offer  sacrifices  of  righteousness."  "The 
way  of  righteousness  is  life,  and  in  the  pathway  thereof 
there  is  no  death."  And  from  the  outset  of  their  his- 
tory they  keep  asserting  of  God,  "  Shall  not  the  judge 


The  Present-Day  Conception  of  God    383 


of  all  the  earth  do  right  ?  "  "A  God  of  truth,  just  and 
right  is  he. "  * '  Righteousness, ' '  they  declare,  ' '  is  the 
habitation  of  his  throne. "  ''The  righteous  I^ord  loveth 
righteousness ;  his  countenance  doth  behold  the  up- 
right.' '  The  primary  injunction  of  the  New  Testament 
is  of  a  similar  import  :  "Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  and  its  righteousness."  The  gospel  itself  is 
declared  to  be  ''the  word  of  righteousness,"  and  in 
the  world  to  come  we  are  told  it  is  the  righteous  who 
"shall  shine  forth  as  the  sun." 

If  we  think  of  God  as  in  our  day  we  have  a  right  to 
think  of  him,  we  shall  say  that  he  is  the  Infinite  Eter- 
nal Energy  from  which  all  things  proceed,  and  that  he 
is  the  Power  in  the  universe  from  which  all  righteous- 
ness proceeds. 

But  these  two  aspects  of  God,  important  as  they  are, 
only  lead  us  on  to  a  third  aspect,  namely,  the  aspect  of 
him  as  a  knowing,  feeling,  and  willing  being;  our 
study  of  the  phenomena  of  nature  discloses  to  us  in 
part  what  God  is.  The  study  of  the  phenomena  of 
human  history  adds  still  further  data  about  him.  And 
proceeding  in  exactly  the  same  way,  we  have  to  look 
to  the  mental  operations  going  on  in  the  universe  for 
still  more  light  on  the  subject. 

Beings  that  know,  and  feel,  and  will,  have  come 
forth  from  God.  He  must,  therefore,  be  adequate  to 
their  production  ;  whatever  else  that  is  higher  he  may 
be  capable  of  doing,  he  must  be  capable  of  knowing, 
feeling,  and  willing.  We  have  certainly  just  as  good 
ground  for  holding  that  God  produces  man  with  all 
his  powers  as  that  he  produces  the  tree  or  the  flower. 
We  are  scientifically  justified  in  maintaining  that  God 
knows  what  is  going  on  in  the  universe  and  feels  an 
interest  in  it.     We  may,  therefore,  truly  say  that  God 


384  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

is  "the  Beginning  and  End  of  all  knowledge,"  and 
that  he  is  the  "master-light  of  all  our  seeing"  ;  for 
every  truth  is  one  of  his  thoughts.  If  there  were  no 
God  there  would  be  no  truth,  nothing  for  us  to  know, 
and  consequently  no  opportunity  to  feel  or  to  do.  We 
cannot  know  anything  that  God  does  not  know,  and 
we  have  no  powers  for  willing  what  he  cannot  will. 

There  is  a  sense  in  which  man  is  in  the  image  of 
God  and  God  is  in  the  image  of  man,  although  the  two 
propositions  are  not  identical.  The  Greek  and  Roman 
mythology  grossly  exaggerated  the  latter  view  and  the 
Hebrews  often  misinterpreted  the  former.  All  we  as- 
sert here  is  that  God  is  capable  of  doing  all  that  man 
can  do.  Whether  he  has  any  other  mental  powers,  it 
is  beyond  us  to  say.  At  all  events,  we  certainly  have 
no  right  to  put  upon  him  the  limitations  to  the  exercise 
of  his  powers  that  we  everywhere  find  imposed  upon 
ourselves.  We  have  no  reason  for  believing,  however, 
that  he  ever  contradicts  himself  and  acts  in  one  capa- 
city in  such  a  way  as  to  nullify  what  he  does  in  another, 
as  we  sometimes  do. 

While  every  new  manifestation  that  God  may  make 
of  himself  in  the  future  will  shed  new  light  on  what  he 
is,  the  highest  form  under  which  he  has  already  mani- 
fested himself  of  which  we  have  any  knowledge  is 
that  of  a  Father.  For  human  fatherhood,  rightly  un- 
derstood, is  the  highest  of  all  his  products.  For  this 
reason  our  highest  conception  of  God  is  that  of  a 
Father,  and  we  ought  to  fashion  all  of  our  notions  of 
him  in  accordance  with  this  point  of  view. 

That  Jesus  did  this  and  exhorted  his  disciples  to  do 
it,  places  him  above  all  other  teachers  of  any  time  or 
country.  Not  only  does  the  model  prayer  he  taught 
his  disciples  show  this,  but  from  the  beginning  to  the 


The  Present-Day  Conception  of  God    385 

end  of  his  ministry  he  was  constantly  asserting  to  his 
followers  that  God  was  his  Father  and  their  Father. 
All  anybody  had  to  do,  he  says,  to  lead  a  righteous 
life,  is  to  do  the  will  of  the  Father.  Even  his  famous 
parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  is  chiefly  intended  to  show 
the  love  of  the  Father.  It  is  entirely  safe  to  say  that  if 
we  could  once  adequately  comprehend  what  is  meant 
by  the  statement,  God  is  our  Father,  we  should  have 
all  the  theology  we  need,  all  we  are  capable  of 
apprehending  with  our  present  powers. 

In  the  light  of  this  conception  of  God  we  see  how 
radically  the  old  medieval  view  of  things  must  be 
changed.  We  have  already  disposed  of  its  notion  of 
creation  out  of  nothing,  and  have  shown  how  its  as- 
sumption of  a  strict  line  of  division  between  the  super- 
natural and  the  natural,  between  a  special  and  a  general 
Providence,  must  disappear  with  God  as  the  one  only 
cause  of  all  that  is,  and  the  one  who  always  pro- 
ceeds in  a  regular  and  orderly  way  to  accomplish  his 
purpose. 

Now  this  conception  of  God  as  our  Father  reveals 
the  fact  that  he  always  loves  his  children.  There 
never  was  a  time  when  he  did  not  love  them  and  was 
not  ready  to  forgive  them  when  they  went  astray.  He 
has  alwaj^s  been  saying  to  those  who  disobey  him, 
*  *  Turn  ye,  turn  ye  from  your  evil  ways ,  for  why  will 
ye  die  ?  "  We  have  every  reason  for  believing  that  it 
has  always  been  literally  true  that  like  as  a  father 
pitieth  his  children  so  the  Lord  pities  us  when  we  hurt 
ourselves  by  sinning.  Hence  we  must  hold  that  he 
did  not  send  his  Son  into  the  world  to  make  it  possible 
for  him  to  forgive.  Forgiveness  is  a  natural  act  and  is 
constantly  going  on  in  the  material  world  as  well  as  the 
human.     The  forces  of  nature  are  always  striving  to 


386  The  Sphere  of  Religion 

heal  wounds  and  make  up  for  injuries.  Man  is  ever 
intently  searching  for  nature's  remedies,  and  his  great 
ambition  is  to  find  a  way  by  which  he  can  apply  them, 
and  give  nature  a  chance  to  do  her  normal  work. 

It  did  not  require  any  ransom  to  be  paid  for  sin  to 
induce  God  to  look  with  favor  upon  his  erring  children 
and  allow  them  to  come  back.  The  mission  of  Jesus, 
therefore,  was  not  to  reconcile  God  to  man,  to  change 
God's  attitude  toward  his  children,  but  to  inspire  in 
man  greater  love  and  devotion  to  God.  Nor  was  it  his 
work  to  take  away  the  penalty  of  wrong-doing,  but  to 
help  on  the  abandonment  of  sinful  living.  He  never 
claimed  to  do  the  former,  but  constantly  spoke  of 
himself  as  giving  his  life  for  the  remission  of  sins. 

Jesus  is  the  great  inspirer  of  man  to  holiness  of  life, 
because  he  showed  sinful  man  that  God  always  loved 
him,  and  how  he  ought  to  conduct  himself  in  order  to 
enjoy  his  love  and  favor.  He  is  the  representative  to 
us,  under  human  conditions  and  limitations,  of  God  our 
Father.  He  is  not  the  same  as  God,  but  a  manifesta- 
tion of  God.  God  is  more  than  the  sum-total  of  his 
manifestations  just  as  a  man  is  more  than  the  sum-total 
of  his  thoughts.  Therefore,  we  should  think  of  God 
as  more  than  Jesus,  who  was  the  highest  form  of  his 
manifestation  of  which  we  have  any  knowledge. 

Furthermore,  when  we  think  of  Jesus  as  manifesting 
to  us  the  Father,  we  should  not  attribute  to  him  a 
divinity  different  from  that  of  our  divinity.  To  do  so 
dishonors  God.  We  are  as  truly  sons  of  God  as  he 
was.  There  are  not  several  different  kinds  of  divinity^ 
but  one  kind  only.  Jesus  differed  from  us  in  the  de- 
gree to  which  he  manifested  the  Father  and  in  the 
purity  and  holiness  of  his  life.  He  lived  the  kind  of  a 
life  he  did  because  of  the  conditions  of  his  time.     He 


The  Present- Day  Conception  of  God  387 

suffered  because  a  father  always  suffers  if  the  one  he 
loves  goes  astray.  Love  always  sacrifices  itself  for  the 
object  loved  if  any  need  arises  for  so  doing.  Jesus 
suffered  not  to  vindicate  God's  laws,  but  to  reveal  God 
to  man  and  to  make  known  God's  love  for  him  even  in 
his  sins.  God  being  our  Father,  we  have  every  reason 
to  suppose  that  he  will  do  all  in  his  power  to  disclose 
his  interest  in  his  children,  that  he  will  show  them  by 
concrete  example,  and  not  merely  by  precepts  and 
commands,  how  to  live  the  highest  life  possible  un- 
der human  conditions  and  Hmitations.  This  Jesus  did 
and  he  had  the  right  to  say  of  himself,  ''  I  am  the  way, 
the  truth,  and  the  life. ' ' 

We  ought  not,  however,  to  think  of  God  as  having 
incarnated  himself  once  for  all  two  thousand  years  ago. 
He  is  all  the  time  incarnating  himself  in  human  his- 
tory. We  cannot  set  any  limit  to  the  possible  forms  of 
his  incarnation  in  the  future.  We  have  gone  as  far  as 
we  have  any  right  to  go  when  we  say  that  Jesus  was 
sent  into  the  world  ''that  he  might  be  the  first  born 
among  many  brethren. ' '  Because  he  has  shown  us  the 
mind  and  heart  of  God  beyond  any  other  being  that 
has  appeared  in  history  we  have  the  right  to  regard 
him  as  embodying  our  highest  conception  of  God,  and 
to  praise  and  reverence  him  for  what  he  has  done  in 
our  behalf. 


INDEX 


Abraham,  111-113,  124 
A.cts  of  the  Apostles,  137 
Ahriman,  98 
Ahura-Mazda,  98 
Ancestor  worship,  21^23 
Angell,  President,  on  ances- 
tor worship  in  China,  271 
Angell,   Professor,   on   Chris- 
tian Science,   207 
Anselm's  conception  of  God, 

369-371 

Anthropomorphism  in  re- 
ligion, 36 

Aphrodite,  90 

Apollo,  85,  86 

Apostles'      Creed     described, 

345-347 

Architecture  and  its  relation 
to    religion,    234,    242-244 

Ares,  87 

Aristotle,  286,  338 

Art  and  its  relation  to  re- 
ligion, 231-235,  242-255 

Artemis,  90 

Assyria,  its  relation  to  Baby- 
lonia, 51 

Athene,  89 

Augustine's  conception  of 
God,  371,  372 


B 


Babylonians,  their  sacred 
tablets,  37-51 

Bacon,  Professor,  120 

Baldwin,  S.  E.,  on  relation  of 
religion  to  history,  265,  267 

Berkeley  on  human  immor- 
tality, 364 

Blavatsky,  Madame  H.  P., 
210-216,  225-227 


Bleek,  119 

Bluntschli  on  the  modern 
state,  329,  330 

Book  of  the  Dead,   52-60 

Brahma,  meaning  of,  64 

Briggs,  Professor,  120 

Brinton,  D.  G.,  on  the  uni- 
versality of  religion,  14;  on 
joyousness  in  primitive  re- 
ligions, 17;  on  primitive 
architecture,  243;  on  belief 
in  immortality,  354 

Brooks,  Phillips,  on  the  mis- 
sion of  art,  255 

Buddha,   Gautama,    100-102 

Butler,  Bishop,  on  the  sphere 
of  probability,  342 ;  on 
immortality,  364 

Butler,  President,  on  the 
definition     of     education, 

c 

Caird,  Edward,  definition  of 
religion,  10;  evolution  of 
religion,    14;  idea  of  God, 

377 

Calvin,  John,  on  education, 
297,  298 

Ceres,  91,  92 

Cheyne,  119,  125 

Chinese  classics,  71-77 

Christian  scriptures,  131- 
142;  how  they  originated, 
142-150 

Christianity  and  education, 
290-306 

Church,  the,  and  property, 
307-319;  see  Property;  re- 
lation to  state,  320-337; 
see  State. 


389 


390 


Index 


Cicero  on  Roman  education, 
289 

Clarke,  James  Freeman,  on 
the  religion  of  the  Greeks, 
78;  on  Zoroaster,  100;  on 
Buddhism,   105 

Clifford,  Professor,  on  im- 
mortality, 360 

Code  of  Hammurabi,  47-51 

Code  of  Manu,  65-67 

Comenius  and  education,  301 

Comte  quoted,  244 

Confucius,  71-77 

Creation,  Babylonish  account 
of,  42 


D 


Daniel,  book  of,  128,  129 
Demeter,  91,  92 
Dewey,  John,  on  the  defini- 
tion of  education,  305 
Diana,  90 

Dreams  and  religion,  12 
Driver,  119 


E 


Eddy,  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  G., 
199-206 

Education  and  religion,  278- 
306;  among  the  Egyptians, 
280;  the  Babylonians,  280, 
281;  the  Hebrews,  281, 
282;  the  Hindus,  282;  the 
Persians,  282,  283;  the 
Chinese,  283,  284;  the 
Greeks,  284-287;  the  Ro- 
mans, 287-290;  the  Chris- 
tians, 290-306 

Egyptian  Book  of  the  Dead, 
52-60 

Eichhorn,  119 

Erasmus,  296 

Exodus,  1 1 3-1 1 5 ;  and  how  it 
originated,  121 


F 


Ferguson   on    tree    and    ser- 
pent worship,  19,  20 


Fetishism,  18-21 
Fine   arts,   their  nature   and 
relation    to    religion,    232- 

255 

Fiske,  John,  on  the  basis  of 
religion,  5;  immortality, 
365;  idea  of  God,  368; 
argument  from  design,  376, 
377;  human  selection,  381 

Flood,  the,  Babylonish  ac- 
count of,  43-46 

Froebel  and  education,  302, 
^o^ 

G 

Gautama  Buddha,   100-102 

Genesis,  described,  108-113; 
how  it  originated,  120,  121 

Giddings,  Professor,  on  an- 
cestor worship,  22;  on 
fellow-feeling  as  a  cause  in 
social    phenomena,    273 

Gilbert,  G.  K.,  on  the  age  of 
the  earth,  373,  374 

God,  the  present-day  con- 
ception of,  368-387;  the 
child's  conception,  368;  the 
medieval  conception  as 
represented  by  Augustine, 
369,  371;  by  Anselm,  371, 
372;  the  modern  concep- 
tion as  affected  by  geology, 
373.  374;  by  anthropology, 
374;  by  biology,  374,  375; 
by  astronomy,  375,  376; 
the  conception  as  Infinite 
Eternal  Energy,  378-380; 
as  a  Power  that  makes  for 
righteousness,  380,  383;  as 
a  Father,  383-387 

Graf,  119 

Granger,  Frank,  on  joyous- 
ness  in   early   religion,    17 

Guizot  on  religion  and  civili- 
zation, 256;  on  origin  of 
democracy  in  Europe,  264 


H 


Hague  Peace  Conference,  ori- 
gin of,  275 


Index 


391 


Hammurabi,  code  of,  47-51 

Harnack,    Professor,   on   the 

place    of    church    history, 

257 

Harris,  President,  on  changes 
in  reHgious  thought,  303 

Hebrew  bible,  described,  107- 
119;   its  origin,    1 19-130 

Hephaestos,  86,  87 

Heraclitus,  92 

Hermes,  87,  88 

Hesiod,  77,  81-84 

Hestia,  91 

Hexateuch,  122 

History  and  religion,  256-277 

Holzinger,  119 

Homer,  77-79 

Home,  H.  H.,  on^the  defini- 
tion of  education,  303 

Huxley,  on  the  basis  of  re- 
ligion, 5;  on  education,  303 

Hyslop,  Professor,  referred 
to,  352 

Iliad,  described,  77-80;  its 
origin,  81 

Imagination  in  religion,  36 

Immortality,  human,  352- 
367;  recent  doubts  on  the 
subject,  352;  primitive  be- 
liefs concerning  it,  353, 
354;  a  question  of  proba- 
bihty,  354,  355;  argument 
from  the  nature  and  origin 
of  man,  355-361 ;  from  the 
rationality  of  the  universe, 
361,  362;  from  the  charac- 
ter of  God,  362-364 

Isaiah,  described,  118,  119; 
its  origin,  126,  127 

Isis  Unveiled,  217-224 


Jackson,  A.  V.  Williams,  re- 
ferred to,  94,  96 
James,  epistle  of,  141,  143 
James,  William,  definition  of 
education,     303;     on     im- 
mortality, 360,  361 


Jastrow,  Professor,  on  ances- 
tor worship,  23;  on  origin 
of  civilization,  279 

Jesuits,  299,  300 

Jesus,  mission  of,  386,  387 

John,  epistles  of,  141,  144 

John's  gospel,  135,  137,  146- 
148 

Joyousness  in  primitive  re- 
ligion, 17 

Juno,  88,  89 

Jupiter,  84,  85 


K 


Kant  on  human  immortality, 

365 
Kent,  Professor,  quoted,  120 
Knox,    John,    on    education, 

298 
Koran,    described,    150-160; 

its  origin,  162-164 
Kuenen,   Professor,    119 


Lanman,   Professor,   quoted, 

63 
Lares,  288 
Last  Judgment  according  to 

the  Egyptians,  56,  57 
Latter  Day  Saints,  179 
Laurie,    S.    S.,    quoted,    278, 

286,287 
Layard,    Sir    Austin    Henry, 

exploration  at  Nineveh,  39 
Leuba,     Professor,     on     im- 
mortality, 352 
Liberty,  religious,  the  parent 

of  political,  263,  264 
Linn,  W.  A.,  on  the  Mormons, 

180,  181 
Locke,  John,  on  probability 

in  life,  348 
Lodge,    Sir    Oliver,    on    the 

reign  of  law,   257;  on  the 

sphere  of  religion,   304 
Lubbock,    Sir  John,    on    the 

universality  of  religion,  13; 

on  serpent  worshij^,  20 


392 


Index 


Lucretius  on  dreams  and  re- 
ligion, 1 6 

Luke's  gospel,  134,  135,  144- 
146 

Luther,  on  the  divine  author- 
ity of  rulers,  259,  260;  on 
education,  297-299 

Lyon,  D.  G.,  quoted,  40 


M 


Mark's  gospel,  133,  134,  144- 
146 

Mars,  87 

Matthew's  gospel,  1 31-133; 
its  origin,   144,   145 

Melanchthon  and  education, 
298,  299 

Mencius,  76 

Mercury,  87,  88 

Minerva,  89 

Mitchell,  Professor,  120 

Mivart,  St.  George,  336 

Mohammed,  160-165 

Monotheism,  30-34 

Mormon,  Book  of,  165-177; 
its  origin,  180,  181 

Moses,  113-115,  123,  124;  as 
a  schoolmaster,  281 

Mother  Ann,  202,  203 

Miiller,  Max,  on  sky  worship, 
25,  26;  on  Buddhism,  105, 
106;  on  Madame  Bla vat- 
sky,  227-229 

Munroe,  Professor,  quoted, 
291,  292,  297,  305 


N 


Nature  worship,  23-28 
Negative    Confession    of   the 

Egyptians,  57 
Neptune,  85 
NewcomlD,     Simon,    on    the 

stellar  universe,  375,  376 
New    Testament,    described, 

132-142;   its   origin,    142- 

150 
Nineveh,  explorations  at,   39 
Nirvana,  106,  107 


O 


Olcott,  H.  S.,  and  Madame 

Blavatsky,  213-217 

Origen  on  immortality,  364 

Ormazd,  98 

Osiris,  55-57 

Ostler,    William,   on   immor- 
tality, 352 


Painting  and  its  relation  to 
religion,  234,  235,  247-250 

Paley,  376 

Paul's  epistles,  1 37-141,  142- 
144 

Penates,  288 

Pentateuch,  122 

Pericles,  285 

Pestalozzi  and  education, 
301, 302 

Peter,  epistles  of,  141,  144 

Peters,  John  C,  explorations 
in  Babylonia,  39 

Petronius  on  fear  in  religion, 
16 

Pfleiderer  on  the  basis  of 
religion,  9 

PhilHmore,  Sir  R.,  on  the 
basis  of  international  law, 
272,  273 

Plato  on  immortality,  364 

Poetry  and  its  relation  to  re- 
ligion, 235,  252-255 

Polytheism,  28-30 

Poseidon,  85 

Property  and  the  church, 
307-319;  what  is  not  and 
what  is  the  ultimate 
ground  of  the  right  to 
property,  307-309;  the 
state  as  the  ultimate  con- 
troller of  the  sources  of 
property,  310,  311;  of  the 
mode  of  its  acquisition, 
311,  312;  of  its  uses,  313; 
of  its  transfer  and  descent, 
314-316;  the  church  in  the 
United  States  can  control 
its  regulation,  318,  319 


Index 


393 


Proverbs,   book  of,    117;  its 

origin,  125 
Psalms,  book  of,  1 1 6,  1 1 7 ;  its 

origin,  125,  126 


Rawlinson,  Sir  Henry,  ex- 
plorations in  Babylonia, 
39 
Religion,  what  it  is,  1-12;  not 
identical  with  belief  in 
superhuman  spirits,  3-5 ; 
or  in  human  immortality, 
5,  6;  or  in  one  personal 
God,  6,  7;  or  with  certain 
feelings,  7,.  8;  or  with  cer- 
tain acts  of  the  will,  8,  9; 
it  concerns  the  whole  of 
man  as  a  knowing,  feeling, 
and  willing  being,  9-12; 
the  steps  in  its  evolution 
are:  spiritism,  15-18;  fe- 
tishism, 18-21;  ancestor 
worship,  21-23 ;  nature  wor- 
ship, 23-28;  polytheism, 
28-30;  monotheism,  30- 
34;  its  relation  to  the  fine 
arts,  241-255;  to  history, 
256-277;  to  education, 
278-306 

Revelation,  book  of,  142;  its 
origin,  148-150 

Rice,  Professor,  on  faith  in 
science,  350,  351 

Rig-Veda  described,  62-64 

Riley,  I.  W.,  on  Mormonism, 
180,  184,  185;  on  Christian 
Science,  204,  205 

Royce   on   immortality,    365 


Sabbath,  Babylonish  account 
of  its  origin,  42,  43 

Sacred  books  and  their  ori- 
gin, 37-232 

Schiller,  F.  C.  S.,  on  im- 
mortality, 352, 353  . 

Schleiermacher  on  the  basis 
of  religion,  8 


Science  and  Health,  de- 
scribed, 188-198;  its  origin, 
199-206 

Sculpture  and  religion,  234, 
244-247 

Shamanism,  40 

Smith,    George    Adam,    119, 

125 
Smith,  Joseph,  181-188 
Smith,  Robertson,  17,  119 
Spencer,     Herbert,    on    uni- 
versality   of    rehgion,    13; 
on    ancestor    worship,    23; 
on  education,  303;  on  idea 
of  God,  379 
Spinoza     on     the     basis     of 

religion,  6 
Spiritism,  15-18 
State,  the  modern,  and  the 
church,  320-337;  necessity 
of  recognizing  a  relation 
between  them,  322;  the 
four  great  theories  of  this 
relation  stated  and  criti- 
cised, 322-328;  the  true 
theory,  328,  329;  the  re- 
lation in  the  United  States 
explained,  333-337 


Tennyson's  idea  of  God,  379, 
380 

Theology,  the  scientific 
method  in, 3 3 8-3 5 1  ;  the  sci- 
entific method  described, 
238-342;  all  generaliza- 
tions are  probable  only, 
342-345;  hence  must  be  in 
theology,  345-3 5 ^ 

Theosophy,  its  present  status 
in  the  United  States,  230, 
231.      See    Isis     Unveiled. 

Toy,  Professor,  119 

Triad  of  the  Egyptians,  55 

Tribune,  New  York,  on  the 
Casablanca  uprising,  269, 
270 

Trinity  of  the  Hindus,  64 

Tripitaka  described,  100-104 


394 


Index 


Tylor,  E,  B.,  on  the  basis  of 
religion,  4 


Vedantis,  67 

Vedas  of  the  Hindus,  60-71 

Venus,  90 

Vesta,  91 

Vestal  virgins,  288 

Von  Ranke,  2 85 

Vulcan,  86,  87 

W 

Ward,  Lester  H.,  on  the  basis 
of  religion,  8,  9 

Weber  on  the  relation  of  re- 
ligion to  history,  277 


Wellhausen,  119 

White,  Andrew  D.,  on  Ger- 
many's religious  inheri- 
tance, 264 


Yoga  system  described,  67- 

69 
Young,  Brigham,  on  the  Book 

of  Mormon,  179 


Zeus,  84,  85 
Zoroaster,  9  5-100 
Zwingli,  298 


•^  Selection  from  the 
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